I’ve made the case for the cloud in the smart TV/connected TV realm many times before. Among the cloud’s many smart TV virtues are that it expands the range of consumer devices that can offer TV apps and OTT content, and it provides a write-once, run-anywhere development and maintenance environment.
Now the cloud has a game-breaking ally in its bid to gain acceptance in the smart TV world: HTML5.
Simply put, we’re inexorably heading towards a world where TV apps are authored in HTML5 and hosted in the cloud.
That is, they won’t be written specifically for a particular brand or model of TV, CE device or cable set-top box. They’ll be written in HTML5. And they won’t end up residing on those end-user devices, as the great majority of them do today. They’ll reside in the cloud.
As a result, the apps will become quicker, more powerful, more ubiquitous, and more used. The end-user devices, in turn, will be less weighed down by proprietary technology, and by memory and storage demands. They’ll receive the apps as streams, rather than downloads. There will also be less of a need to sync devices, since you’ll simply be accessing the same app, just from a different device.
While I’ve been envisioning a cloud-powered smart TV world for some time, HTML5 is poised to turn my vision into a reality.
Why is HTML5 so awesome for smart TV?
-
HTML5 standards are managed by a non-corporate entity (the W3C), and are non-proprietary.
-
HTML5 utilizes the existing skill sets and tools of an enormous, established development community.
-
HTML5 is one of the few technologies that receives nearly ubiquitous support from the big players in technology and media alike. Apple, Google, and even Adobe have endorsed it.
-
HTML5 allows developers to create one application that will run on many different devices, including TVs, STBs, PCs, tablets and mobile devices.
For the smart TV space, HTML5 will speed app development cycles, reduce development costs, provide a much larger reach, and make integration of apps with the Web, and Web-connected devices, much smoother.
We’re about to exit the Walled Garden era of smart TV, and enter the Smart TV Everywhere era. Lots of people will be able to make lots of apps and lots of money, and lots of consumers will experience TV like they never imagined.
All because of the dynamic duo of HTML5 and the cloud.
So…
