Tech Firms Again Gun for the Living Room
The most unlikely couples get hitched in this town, but the technology industry’s attempts to marry televisions and computers have always ended up leaving viewers at the altar.
The urge to merge the boob tube and the beige box persisted this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show as some of the biggest names in technology and entertainment outlined plans to bring the Internet to the living room.
Years after the failure of WebTV and similar devices, Intel Corp., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. -- and possibly even Apple Computer Inc. -- are again exploring ways to beam Internet music and video to the TV. Proponents say the efforts are more likely to succeed this time because high-speed networks and speedier chips will deliver a better entertainment experience.
To some analysts, it’s deja vu all over again. They said consumers already had rejected the computing world’s vision of entertainment and the notion of navigating endless screens of menus or pecking through on-screen keyboards with the remote to find a TV program.
“In 1999, consumers said they didn’t want it,” said Sean Badding, president of Carmel Group. “It was a bit too cumbersome. They didn’t want all the features. They didn’t want e-mail. WebTV tried to be everything to everyone. That was their Achilles’ heel.”
This time, information technology and consumer electronics companies are paring down their expectations for TV-connected devices. Rather than try to duplicate the computing experience for couch potatoes, they want to connect TV screens to the banks of video, music and photos people have stored on their PCs.
Over time, the companies want to expand that connection to the unlimited content available on the Internet.
Among the likely entrants: Apple, which used its iPod music player and iTunes Music Store to create a market for online music. At next week’s Macworld show in San Francisco, the company is expected to unveil a TV-connected device that would record shows the way TiVo Inc.’s popular digital video recorder does.
The device, expected to be a version of Apple’s Mac mini, would be powered by software that Apple introduced with its latest version of the iMac, which lets people watch DVDs, play Internet video and listen to music using a remote control.
“That makes perfect sense,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. “Within two years I think there is a high likelihood that Apple will have TV tuners in all its computers.”
Spokesman Steve Dowling said Apple would not comment on “speculation and rumor.”
The company, whose QuickTime software has delivered movie previews over the Internet for years, unveiled a landmark deal in October to sell downloads of such popular ABC television shows as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost.” Apple has since expanded its video offerings to include NBC Universal shows including “Monk” and “Law & Order.”
Intel drafted Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Danny DeVito and other celebrities for a red-carpet launch at the show here of a digital entertainment technology called Viiv (rhymes with jive). It’s a marketing campaign for a collection of high-speed chips and software to deliver Internet video, games and other content to the TV.
Entertainment companies including AOL, NBC Universal, Turner Broadcasting and ESPN similarly took the stage to talk about how consumers could use their Viiv-powered PCs to listen to AOL Radio, watch classic television shows or view highlights from the 2006 Winter Olympics in high-resolution video.
For its part, Yahoo showed off its Yahoo Go service, which allows viewers to watch movie trailers and other media content from Yahoo. It will also help people manage photos and other personal content stored on a PC.
“We all grew up when someone else was the programmer,” Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said. “That dynamic has totally changed.”
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Times staff writer Meg James in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
