C-O-N-N-E-C-T-E-D
C-O-N-N-E-C-T-E-D
We're using broadband, out on the net,
Wifi, living the ilife...
The Financial Times:
Living the iLife: For years, the consumer technology industry has been talking about the day when all devices would be hooked up to the internet. That day is now quickly arriving – with big implications for businesses in technology, entertainment and the media. At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, it was not just smartphones, eReaders and other personal gadgets that connected to the web. Most TVs now yearn to get online, a change which threatens to disrupt the business models of pay-TV operators who have long profited from harnessing these boxes to their closed networks. Even cars are becoming platforms for digital entertainment, information and communications, as evidenced by Ford’s move to allow others to create applications that run on its systems – a move that echoes the approach taken by Apple with its iPhone app store.
This new world comes with new business rules.... Software, service and content all need to work in harmony to create the right experience for consumers – something that precious few (other than Apple) have managed.
One problem has been the slowness with which a balkanised consumer technology world has adapted to the open internet. Too often, incompatible devices fail to connect.... Content is locked up in media formats limited to particular platforms.... Enlightened self-interest is coming to the rescue. A group of entertainment and technology companies, known as the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, has made headway in developing a format that lets media travel across devices while allowing its creator to control how it is used. New technologies also tend to open up as they evolve. Companies that pioneer markets often try to capitalise on early successes by letting others tap into their base of customers... what the consumer tech world needs now is more of [open standards]...
