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LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

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Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#21

Post by mixedbit »

PostOnce wrote: post #17
mixedbit wrote: post #10

I wonder if any attempt at reinventing TV will achieve a mainstream success (I mean a legacy TV scale success). Up until today all such attempts attracted a relatively small group of customers and a popular opinion is that TV is bound to die.

I've always been of the opinion that a TV is just a display. A computer/the web/netflix just gives you access to more content for that display; it's still a TV. Analog broadcast channels, digital cable w/ box and guide features, the full web and netflix, what's the real difference here other than quantity of content? We'll still be watching shows and movies on large format displays for the foreseeable future. tl,dr:…

You are right, TV viewed as just a display is IMO not bound to die. But TV as a platform for delivering content very likely is (and this is large part of the business). Companies creating smart TVs are definitely not agreeing that TV should be just a display, because then what would be a point of putting a feature rich OS there?

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#22

Post by koralatov »

PostOnce wrote: post #17
mixedbit wrote: post #10

I wonder if any attempt at reinventing TV will achieve a mainstream success (I mean a legacy TV scale success). Up until today all such attempts attracted a relatively small group of customers and a popular opinion is that TV is bound to die.

I've always been of the opinion that a TV is just a display. A computer/the web/netflix just gives you access to more content for that display; it's still a TV. Analog broadcast channels, digital cable w/ box and guide features, the full web and netflix, what's the real difference here other than quantity of content? We'll still be watching shows and movies on large format displays for the foreseeable future. tl,dr:…

A lot of people use `TV' to refer to both the thing on the wall, and the industry that produces things to show on the thing on the wall. I think that's the case here.

Assuming I've read the OP right, I don't agree with the assessment that the TV industry ``is bound to die''. The demand for high-quality, well-made programming remains relatively stable (maybe increases gradually over time), and even with the best will in the world, amateur producers can't produce anything to match something like Game of Thrones. So there will probably always be something akin to the TV industry producing that sort of programming.

What probably will change is the means of distribution -- it'll be over the internet instead of over the air -- but I don't think there will be a radical shift in the style of broadcast for a long time. People are happier paying $XX for a cable/satellite package and getting an Eat-As-Much-As-You-Like experience instead of buying each course separately. If this wasn't the case, we'd already have seen a massive uptick in people cancelling their TV service and just buying $PROGRAMME season-by-season on iTunes. As far as I've seen and read, that just isn't the case.

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#24

Post by mikecane »

RexRollman wrote: post #14
barredo wrote: post #2

It's hard to imagine a worse ending to the WebOS software.

Seems fitting to me, as Palm bought BeOS, accomplished nothing with it, and they sold it off to Access Co, who appears to have done nothing with it.

Hang on. That's not true. At one time the ELSE phone was hyped. http://youtu.be/M4sVGR5uRhc

It went nowhere, but at least it was something at one time.

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#25

Post by MatthewPhillips »

koralatov wrote: post #22
PostOnce wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been of the opinion that a TV is just a display. A computer/the web/netflix just gives you access to more content for that display; it's still a TV. Analog broadcast channels, digital cable w/ box and guide features, the full web and netflix, what's the real difference here other than quantity of content? We'll still be watching shows and movies on large format displays for the foreseeable future. tl,dr:…

A lot of people use `TV' to refer to both the thing on the wall, and the industry that produces things to show on the thing on the wall. I think that's the case here. Assuming I've read the OP right, I don't agree with the assessment that the TV industry ``is bound to die''. The demand for high-quality, well-made programming remains relatively stable (maybe increases gradually over time), and even with the best will…

The more availability of internet-based programming, the more people will use it. The more people use it, the more strain is put on bandwidth, which in many areas is already strained. I think we're in for a rude awakening here; the TV industry is warming up to internet distribution faster than the broadband industry is advancing its tech. People run back to cable when Netflix buffers every 5 minutes.

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#26

Post by koralatov »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #20

This just signals that there is a hole in the market for an open source smart TV platform. Google TV was supposed to be that, but it's pretty clear that they don't take it as seriously as they take Android. To manufacturers like LG, TVs are actually more important, and falling behind competitors is more serious. Forking Android for this purpose isn't really an option thanks to the recent "non-fragmentation agreement"…

This just signals that there is a hole in the market for an open source smart TV platform.

Is there, though? I'm pretty technical, and very interested in the whole FLOSS thing, and I'm pretty much of the `meh' contingent when it comes my TV's software's licensing. All I really care about is turning the damn thing on, watching what I want, when I want, and being able to afford to rent the stuff I want to watch. Now take that disinterest in the licensing and `openness' of a TV's software, multiply it several times, and you get close to the amount most non-technical people care about the software their TV runs.

I've worked with non-technical people long enough to know that they care about getting done what they want to do, easily, more than almost anything else when it comes to software. That attitude may be short-sighted, but it's very much the standard; all they want from a TV is the ability to watch $PROGRAMME with as little pain and inconvenience as possible. Caring about the philosophy of the software a TV runs is very much a `nerd' past-time, and that's not likely to change soon.

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#27

Post by mikecane »

SquareWheel wrote: post #8
darklajid wrote: post #4

The thing I liked most about WebOS? Gestures and its card system. I cannot imagine how that translates to a TV.

Perhaps a remote with a touch pad for gestures?

With TV's "second screen" being touted -- mainly via iOS -- LG is going to pass up an opportunity and NOT make a webOS tablet?

Wait. We're talking about webOS here. It's always screwed, so never mind.

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#29

Post by koralatov »

PostOnce wrote: post #18
mixedbit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people for sure will still want to watch stuff on good quality displays. But I think dump TVs: large displays that you can easily connect to a standard computer or a mobile device and stream content to are much more compelling than 'smart' platforms.

You can plug computers into the HDMI port of any new TV already, right? Whats the difference between a TV and a large display, for the purposes of the average consumer?

None whatsoever. I know lots of non-technical people who do exactly that, without having the faintest idea of how their laptop magically outputs stuff to their TV. To them, in that use case, it becomes much the same as the DVD player or video recorder they're used to; it just so happens that it also does more than either of those two things.

Re: LG acquires webOS from HP, plans to use it in smart TV platform

#30

Post by MatthewPhillips »

koralatov wrote: post #26
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #20

This just signals that there is a hole in the market for an open source smart TV platform. Google TV was supposed to be that, but it's pretty clear that they don't take it as seriously as they take Android. To manufacturers like LG, TVs are actually more important, and falling behind competitors is more serious. Forking Android for this purpose isn't really an option thanks to the recent "non-fragmentation agreement"…

This just signals that there is a hole in the market for an open source smart TV platform. Is there, though? I'm pretty technical, and very interested in the whole FLOSS thing, and I'm pretty much of the `meh' contingent when it comes my TV's software's licensing. All I really care about is turning the damn thing on, watching what I want, when I want, and being able to afford to rent the stuff I want to watch. Now ta…

I think you missed my point. That consumers only care about their programming being available is precisely why an open platform is needed. If LG releases a smart TV that doesn't have Netflix, Hulu, MLB.tv, Amazon, etc. they look bad in the eye of the consumer. Those content providers are currently building out separate apps for each TV platform, or at least for the ones big enough to move the needle.
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