e: previous version of this comment said Sony's Imaging division was quite healthy, while they are losing money too. But as mirrorless is a new market, I guess it's worth to lose money to establish a good market position.
e: previous version of this comment said Sony's Imaging division was quite healthy, while they are losing money too. But as mirrorless is a new market, I guess it's worth to lose money to establish a good market position.
Latency on screens today is high enough, even in gaming mode, that even the slightest extra latency can kill some applications. I'm working on a karaoke game at the moment, and that latency is absolutely killing me.
I think us (techies) are still in the minority here. My parents love having YouTube on their TV. With all the junk I've bought them during christmas visits, they have a bunch of ways of watching YouTube on their TV: on the Sony Blu-ray/surround system, on the AppleTV, on their iPhones/iPads via AirPlay, or on their MacBooks with AirPlay or an HDMI cable. They've ended up gravitating toward the surround system menus, since it needs the least amount of "fiddling". If the TV had it built in I'm sure they'd love that.
Honest question, do you really think that your parents would prefer the TV youtube app? I mean youtube is all about typing in a search term to find a video, or following a link that someone sent you, and a TV remote control is just not a good interface experience for either of those tasks (typing sucks, and you don't have links, because it's a TV not a browser).
I should point out that I do set top boxes for a living, and I just can't see TVs having a future as anything other than a dumb screen with an AirPlay- / Miracast-type streaming solution bolted on to it. Maybe with some really heavy duty voice input work, or something along those lines, but none of the manufacturers seem to be heading in that direction.
And of course there is the fact that the panel is expensive, and tends to be a longterm purchase. The rest of the system is rapidly evolving, and I'd rather have to buy a new AppleTV for $100 every 3 years than have to buy a new LCD panel for $1000 every 3 years to have the latest hotness. Maybe things will settle down in 10 years or so, but until then I don't think I'm unusual in wanting my TV just to be the best panel possible and leaving the content management to other boxes.
Yes, because the TV is a couple years old and doesn't run today's apps, even though it has the right number of pixels which haven't changed in a decade.
> Stick a PC in my TV as soon as possible, please!
No. Because the pace of development in screens is notably less than the pace of development in devices, and the cost of building (a probably underpowered) PC into the TV would end up being a significant portion of the purchase price without much benefit.
AirPlay changes the equation. Use whatever latest personal device you have, tap a button to see it on the TV.
It's redundant to have multiple apps with multiple UIs and preferences scattered across multiple devices, when the tech exists today to have a primary personal device that you could look at anywhere.
TVs need to get out of the app business, just display HDMI + AirPlay (works from Android using Twonky Beam, iMedia Share, PlayTo, etc.), and focus back on visual quality.
AirPlay annoys me since for video it's still 100% proprietary. Meanwhile we have DLNA which Apple refuse to implement, just so they'll be able to make a mint on overpriced TVs one day when they want to leverage their installed base of iOS devices.
What are you talking about? What apps? All you need for the darned thing to do is stream media from some wireless storage device (or the internet)!