This month, Vizio, the North American vendor of value-priced television lines sold heavily in warehouse clubs and discount store chains, amended its exclusive use of smart TVs based on the Chromecast platform as it expanded its selection of app partners beyond the Google ecosystem. The move not only lets Vizio customers access a more traditional […]
U.S. IPTV Providers Are No Longer Bucking the Trend
U.S. cable and satellite TV providers have been buffeted in recent years by subscriber loss. Indeed, the only segment in the U.S. pay TV market in the past several years to routinely post net subscriber gains have been the IPTV providers—principally AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS. But the telco run of subscriber gains that marked […]
How Disruptive Will Bluetooth Mesh Be?
Even though Bluetooth has been around for less than 20 years, it is only in the last half dozen or so that its adoption has ballooned. Bluetooth’s accelerated adoption rate is attributable largely to the explosion in Bluetooth speakers and headphones, and especially to the growing cornucopia of products and product categories using smartphone-connected Bluetooth […]
Chinese video streaming market: How big can it get?
While the streaming video industry is focused on Netflix’s Q2 data—which was punctuated by the addition of 5.2 million subscribers—it might be a good idea to keep a closer eye on streaming service providers in China. Today, leading Chinese internet-based streaming services are believed to have more than 500 million active users, according to China […]
Can Google Make 3D Video Cool Again?
The fate of 3D TVs has become a cautionary tale about the perils of attempting to market technologies without adequate consumer demand. But there was a little known offshoot of the 3D TV phenomena that enjoyed an equally short-lived moment in the sun. Shortly after 3D TVs began hitting the market, several camera and camcorder […]