TV makers lock circuits with smartphone makers

The rise of Apple and Google in the smartphone market has pushed Nokia and Research In Motion to the brink of irrelevance. Now, television makers are scrambling to make sure the same does not happen to them.

At the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, Toshiba, LG Electronics and Philips Electronics said they were banding together to develop a common system that would let people listen to music, watch videos and play games via the internet on television sets.

TV makers are wagering that mobile phone users hooked on consuming content will want the same access, and on bigger screens, when they return home. For manufacturers to hold back Apple and Google, which are both trying to take a slice of the TV market, they have to develop a joint operating system because consumers will not accept more than a few competing platforms, said Klaus Bohm, the head of the media practice at Deloitte in Dusseldorf.

“All market participants have to consider this as part of their strategy, and if they make the wrong call, they may be out of the market in a few years’ time,” he said. Apple and Google “can set de facto standards against the consensus of the market and assert themselves because of their market power and unique selling points.”

Members of the consortium, called the Smart TV Alliance, want to make sure that application developers can create offerings that run on different sets and expect additional members by the end of the year, said Olivier van Wynendaele, a product and business development manager for smart televisions at Toshiba.

“There are many platforms on the market, and that creates a lot of friction,” he said. “Everybody is trying to take a position in that market, and with players like Apple or Google, there is the threat of fragmenting the market, so it is important to work on a common platform.” Some manufacturers have developed their own systems.

Sony’s Bravia TV sets can stream films and songs through the Sony Entertainment Network, which also connects with the company’s Playstation console and Xperia phones.

Panasonic is at IFA showing how its Viera system allows content to be moved between the TV and tablet computers. LG’s operating system enables viewers to obtain movies from video-streaming services.

Samsung Electronics, the largest manufacturer of smart TVs, with more than 30 per cent market share globally, said alliances might be more appropriate for its smaller competitors.

“Alliances may be possible but we’re not at that stage yet,” Hyun-suk Kim, the head of Samsung’s TV business, said. “Everybody is using their own platform right now, but the small companies find it very difficult to get content and services. Having a unified platform would be very helpful for the industry but I’m not sure it’s the right time” for Samsung, he said.

In the phone business, Apple has shown that it can enter and dominate a new market with its easy-to-use products and superior design. Nokia, the former leader in the mobile-phone industry, and RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, are struggling to win back people who have been won over by Apple’s iPhone and devices that run on Google’s Android platform.

Teaming up with Google, whose Android software has become the biggest smartphone operating system, might also be an option for some TV manufacturers to counter Apple’s threat.

Sony integrates Google TV into some TV sets in North America, while in Europe it will deliver the service through a set-top box only, said Stéphane Curtelin, a TV marketing executive for the Japanese company.

“There are a lot of advantages for TV manufacturers going down that route and abandoning their own systems,” said Andrew Ladbrook, an analyst for Informa. “If Google TV is coming on, essentially just Android on TV, then there can be lots of advantages to having one common operating system across the platform.”
So far, Google TV set-top boxes and high definition TVs, produced in partnership with Sony and LG, have received lackluster reviews and an even cooler reception from customers.

In Germany alone, flat-panel TVs will make up 49 per cent of the projected $12.9 billion, or $16 billion, in consumer-electronics sales this year, well ahead of digital cameras, game consoles and disc players, according to the Bitkom industry group.

Second chance

The size of the market is also attracting mobile phone operators which smell a second chance after losing out to Apple and Google in selling apps to smartphone users.

Deutsche Telekom is showing in Berlin how it will let customers access its Internet-based Entertain TV offering via mobile devices. The phone company is talking to hardware and software makers about how to make different systems work together, said the company’s German chief, Niek Jan van Damme.

“For a time, people were not able to go beyond the confines of their ecosystems,” he said. “I don’t think customers will tolerate that in the future. I’m happy we were off to an early start, that’s always advantageous, but we’d also welcome cooperation with others.”

Another strategy for manufacturers could be to stay out of the content business altogether and focus on the hardware.

“Most of the manufacturers are not in the content distribution business, they have to create the store environments in a manner that keeps the consumer in the same window,” said Matt Milne, head of sales and marketing for Rovi, a provider of digital entertainment guides, which counts all the major TV manufacturers among its customers.

“They all entered the world expecting to get the additional revenue and that’s not really materialised, at least never in the way that Apple have done with the iTunes store and the iPhone,” said Ladbrook, of Informa. “Only Apple and Sony have their own content. They’re the only ones that can make money. The rest are acting as gatekeepers.”