“In other words, users are usually interested to use their SMART TV just like an ordinary TV,” says John Buffon director of NPD Connected Intelligence. The research is a major blow to all manufacturers of smart TVs that are investing millions of dollars into the development of TVs that will be able to connect to Internet but also run different applications.

“The results are good and bad news for the producers of the TV”, says NPD. “On the positive side, the TV itself remains the fundamental screen for TV viewing within the home and is seeing an expanded array of programming through OTT services that supplement Pay TV subscriptions. The less than great news is that the TV manufacturers are failing to make the TV more than, well, a TV.” said Buffon.

To conclude they said “As a result, it’s no wonder that most connected consumers are currently stopping short of exploring options beyond video. To counter this, OEMs and retailers need to focus less on new innovation in this space and more on simplification of the user experience and messaging if they want to drive additional, and new, behaviors on the TV.” That is not far from truth, there will always be those that are not familiar to latest technological innovations and that can’t use all the features new devices bring, but if they manage to make it simple enough that could be the turning point.

[Ed – During a cab ride at CES we once heard a quote from a representative of a company (who shall remain nameless) that, so far, does not make a “smart” TV: “We are not going to try and build WebTV Version 2.” Although there will be some that do want a more general web experience on their TVs that market is very small and is unlikely to grow much if at all. Instead manufacturers should concentrate on building devices capable of delivering more media content and drop all of the other crap like Facebook…]

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