According to an industry analysis done by Futuresource Consulting, smart TV manufacturers aren’t really benefiting from all the consumer activity around them, and that the industry is reaching a “point of no return.” Really?
The report says that:
In developed regions 30% of homes will own a smart TV by the end of 2014, rising to 70% by 2018. And people aren’t just buying the feature, they’re using it too. At present, around 80% of the smart TVs in people’s homes are connected to the internet, with the pervasion of embedded Wi-Fi and auto-boot on track to lift this figure to over 90% by 2016.
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But manufacturers are seeing “limited returns and a shift in focus to UHD,” which means rethinking their designs. It says:
This smart TV juggernaut may mean more TV brands gravitate towards Android TV, as Google would share the load of future development and support. Sony has already confirmed that it will launch Android sets in 2015, as have two Chinese brands, TCL and TPVision. Samsung has a sufficiently high share in smart TV to maintain its own platform and apps program, as well as seeking exclusive content, but is also promoting Tizen as an open OS alternative to Google.
Senior analyst Jack Wetherill elaborated via email, saying that you can only push it so far without seeing a revenue returns:
TV manufacturers are continuously innovating with interactive Smart TV features like dynamic EPG updates and advanced user interfaces like gesture and voice control. These enhance sales appeal and can influence market share, but do not normally generate a discrete revenue stream per se.
You can read a summary of the report here. It’s sort of a shame, passing the buck over to Google and Apple to develop all the new smart televisions, but from this report, it seems like the smart TV “juggernaut” is moving and evolving too rapidly for anyone else to take the time (and use the money) to innovate or plan to far ahead.