A guy I know owns a 35-inch Sony television that weighs just slightly more than a Cadillac Escalade, takes up about a quarter of his bedroom and consumes enough energy to make Al Gore lose weight with worry.
He bought the set about 15 years ago, just as flat panel TVs were coming onto the market, because a television set manufacturer’s rep said that HDTV would take about six years to really get rolling. Six years after buying the Sony, he bought a full-featured digital HDTV and put it in his family entertainment center. He gave the delivery guys an extra 50 bucks to move the Sony to his bedroom where it’s been making dents in the carpet ever since.
When I pointed out to him that new HDTV sets don’t cost that much and do so much more, he looked at me blankly and said: “Why would I want to get a new set? This one is a Sony, no baloney. It’s got a great picture and pretty good sound. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
Except that it can’t show off that picture without some form of analog-to-digital device to pick the signals off the air or over the cable, satellite or telco network. Neat features like picture-in-picture are obsolete and have been for years, although they were extras when the set was bought. And, as mentioned previously, it weighs a ton and spins the energy meter.
“So?” he answered. “It gets a good picture and it’s great for watching Leno on the Tonight Show before I go to sleep.”
End of story. At least end of his story. The story of hardware versus software; device versus cloud has been ramping in volume about as long as that guy’s owned that set. It was a big topic of debate at the TV of Tomorrow Show where there was sharp division between those who would put the smarts into the device—can anyone say TiVo—and those who would make the cloud the final repository.
Put me among those who think the cloud is the best place to put the most information. As my buddy’s TV demonstrates, consumer electronics devices are built for obsolescence but not overnight obsolescence. Applications and content are immediate and changes in how they are delivered and especially how they’re received and displayed can happen overnight. Somewhere along the line a featured device that depends on its software and mechanics to deliver the latest in home entertainment will outlive its ability to do so—unless, of course, it’s attached to another device that can receive that information. Of course a device that’s built with the scalability and upgradability to switch with the times will never become obsolete; it may break and it may die from old age but it won’t stop serving its purpose.
Fifteen years ago my buddy had six years to worry that his set would be replaced by an onslaught of HDTVs. Today’s device, like a car that leaves the lot and depreciates to junk, is likely to be obsolete before the consumer even understands all its features. Isn’t it a better idea just to put those features in the cloud and give the consumer access to them via an open-ended device?
By the way, my buddy figures to move in the next year or so. When he does he won’t be taking his Sony along—not because it doesn’t work, but because it weighs so damned much he knows he’ll never move it.
