It’s natural for a new industry to try everything in the quest for what will eventually work. The quest for what people really want. In the early days of web/TV convergence, the industry assumption was that people would want to bring the computer-internet experience into the living room, onto the couch, displayed on the TV. That was the use-case model for Steve Perlman’s WebTV. I should know; I was the national media spokesman and evangelist for WebTV in 1996, its launch year.
If it seems shocking that web/TV convergence hasn’t taken off in all this time, it shouldn’t be. We (consumers) don’t want productivity on the couch, or information, or web services. We want freakin’ TV on the couch.
There is one reason web/TV convergence is getting second wind now (either built into the set or via an add-on box): TV programming has taken hold on the web. The reverse convergence sneaked in. We want the web on our televisions now, but only because the web features cheap, on-demand made-for-TV programming. That web feature, in aggregate, is an equal or better product than the TV itself and its expensive cable/satellite providers.
So, memo to Boxee Box, GoogleTV and the other nascent ventures swaying for balance on their newly launched ships:
Flickr? No!
New York Times app? No!
Pandora? No! (Er, rarely.)
The Onion? Yes, but only the videos!
RSS feeds? Are you kidding me!?
It’s about TV, stupid. The convergence has already happened. We just need you to get us off our computers so we can watch the web(TV) on the couch, like millennia of humans before us. Centuries of humans. Decades.
Engadget liveblog of Boxee Box launch event
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