ThreeScreensAndACloud
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Entelligence: The evolution of the TV
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. > In a world of connected screens, the venerable TV continues to wait in isolation while the personal computer and the cell phone have become ubiquitously connected. Sure, there have been experiments in interactive TV -- gadgets like WebTV and modern game consoles are connected devices, and set-top boxes like the Roku and TiVo add connected components -- but most TVs in the US remain blissfully ignorant of the internet. There's arguably more TV content viewed on PCs than there is web content consumed on TVs. Here's why the TV remains disconnected and how that might change. First, the PC and TV don't get along well. It's been a match that's been tried for more than a decade. It would seem like a no brainer: take a device with great connectivity and pair it with the TV. In the 90s Gateway introduced a line of Destination PCs that were designed for living room use, Microsoft later built some of the best TV and PC integration with their Media Center efforts, and even Apple has added a ten foot user experience to Mac OS with its Front Row UI. None of these efforts ever went mainstream. Why? Simple: PCs are designed for smaller screens, mice and keyboards, and TVs aren't. No matter what shell you layer on top, you're still stuck with a PC OS underneath that's not optimized for the TV experience.
Steve Ballmer talks 'three screens and a cloud' and more with TechCrunch
Steve Ballmer's talk at Microsoft's Venture Capital Summit yesterday may have only been open to a select few, but non-VCs can now get the next best thing courtesy of TechCruch, which got a chance to sit down with Ballmer following the event. In the wide-ranging interview, Ballmer discusses Microsoft's new "three screens and a cloud" strategy, which he describes as a "fundamental shift in the computing paradigm" (and can't help but compare to Three Men and a Baby), as well as Microsoft's "fun year" with things like Bing, Windows 7, and Project Natal, and Microsoft's future acquisition strategy (it'll probably buy about another 15 companies next year). Of particular note, Ballmer also went some way to dampen any talk of a Microsoft-banded phone, saying that while an Apple or RIM can "do just fine," Microsoft still thinks a software play is right for them in such a high volume market -- noting that, "when 1.3 billion phones a year are all smart, the software that's gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that's sold by somebody who doesn't make their own phone." Head on past the break to see the whole thing for yourself.
