Some more thoughts on App Store for TV
In one of my posts on Trend Watch (http://www.infosysblogs.com/livewire/2009/04/after_iphone_now_it_is_appstor.html), I had talked about App stores in TV. So what the proposition can be.
To start with may be we can just have some trivial applications on the TV. The ideas for such applications may come from the popular one's on mobile. Of course, the applications will need to be contextualized to TV environment i.e. the font, color resolution, navigation etc. will need to be modified accordingly.But, while the applications on mobile can be enjoyed by the person who is carrying the mobile in the family, TV applications can be enjoyed by anybody in the family sitting at home. The monetization aspects for a telco can be similar to the way iphone app store works. And the user enjoy's applications anytime anywhere, on any device.
Extending the same vision may be we can have converged application store. So one not only enjoys applications on mobile and TV, but is also able to carry forward the context from one screen to another. For example: I am playing scrabble game on TV and after some time I have to switch off the application unfinished. So I should be able to save the context on TV and logon from mobile and get the saved context so that I can continue from where I left on TV.
Any thoughts??
Comments
There are a few other aspects which need to be looked into
1. TV is more of a common entertainment device (Typically, more than one family member will watch it together), as opposed to a mobile phone (Mapped to an individual). Applications/Games can be made more engaging on a TV for a group of family members watching it together.
2. Considering the fact that more than one TV is a very common phenomenon in today's households, applications should seamlessly transfer from one TV set to another, if desired by the user, along with context sensitive information. (E.g. Person left a game on TV1 should be able to start it from exactly same point on another TV2)
Posted by: Vinay Singh | May 27, 2009 06:39 AM
These are some very interesting thoughts about enabling applications on TV. What I am not sure about is the users behavior/up-take with respect to such applications. I think the interactivity that is provided today on TV is still not totally adopted by the users. Users still view TV as more of an Entertainment Device which they passively consume than a device that they can actively interact with.
Another limitation which I feel may be hindering this up-take or adoption is the limitation of the remote control which is the only device they can use to navigate through and interact with TV. As applications are conceived for the TV, I would like to see how developers solve this issue. What are your thoughts?
Posted by: Sandeep Chandrasekar Seshadri | May 29, 2009 06:54 PM
Sandeep,
I share the same apprehensions as yours. Work is being done in this regard. I think to increase the uptake of interactive services, the service has to be made simple enough so that it replicates what users are already doing on the web in a TV friendly manner. We should not expect users to be sitting in front of TV and typing long responses. I would say user friendly UI designs for TV are yet to be standardized. For the second part we are starting to work on a feature where a subscriber of 3-screen services will be able to use mobile for sending messages that can appear on a friend's TV.
Posted by: Manish Jain | June 11, 2009 07:16 AM
Vinay,
Thanks for the refreshing ideas.
Posted by: Manish Jain | June 11, 2009 07:18 AM