Several vendor booths at TelcoTV 2008 last week showed that the sector's technology innovators are continuing to work on new ideas for the consumer interface to TV and video programming. Whether that will occur mostly through a box like a Roku or Vudu unit, or through a graphical user interface more integrated with an IPTV service, remains to be seen. Light Reading's Contentinople points out that this is one area Apple has not been able to revolutionize (at least not yet). TelcoTV exhibitors were only too happy to show booth visitors their latest mosaic GUI display capabilities or the speed of their search and channel change functions, but the emphasis with most was on providing the consumer many different possible interfaces, and allowing them to choose.
For more:
Light Reading's Contentinople reports [1]
Related articles
TV user interfaces generated news back at CES 2008 [2]
Mobile expert UI Evolution has examined the IPTV interface [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=167977
[2] http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/lounge-room-war-erupts/2008-01-08
[3] http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/also-noted-uievolution-talks-iptv-user-interface-microsoft-wants-closer-relationships-with-sps-and-m/2006-06-29