Can Internet TV completely defeat traditional TV in one step?

March 23 (Reporter Zhang Zhichang) The emergence of Internet TV products is undoubtedly the biggest survival challenge faced by the traditional TV industry since its birth. Data shows that the penetration rate of my country's Internet TV market has increased from 30% in 2012 to 70% in 2014, and with the continuous formation and growth of the smart TV application market, this number is still climbing.

However, some industry insiders believe that there is still a stock market of about 500 million in my country's traditional color TV industry, and this figure may support traditional TV manufacturers to continue to have food to eat in the next ten years. Of course, this is not the "last mile" for Internet TV to completely defeat traditional TV and become the mainstream of the future home appliance market; because, compared with the strength of its opponents, Internet TV manufacturers seem to be more concerned about the improvement of their own capabilities.

Indeed, compared with traditional TV, Internet TV requires more than just a display screen and a cable. The product replacement under the Internet tide requires Internet TV to not only have all the functions of traditional TV, but also bring more intelligent experience to users. However, the current situation is that smart TV is not intelligent enough, and other external conditions cannot meet the development needs of Internet TV products.

First, it is not smart enough, but it is traditional enough. In the early days of product intelligence, users' expectations for smart products are generally not higher than the level of the products themselves. However, in the Internet TV industry, we have to admit that since its birth, smart TVs have been unable to hide the dilemma that their functional applications cannot meet user needs. Especially as users' understanding of smart TVs becomes more comprehensive and professional, some single functional gimmicks of smart TVs can no longer support the future of the entire industry.

Take the TV remote control that opens the TV intelligent application experience as an example. Currently, the standard smart TV remote control generally starts to focus on simplicity, and has gradually evolved from a full set of buttons to 6 keys, 5 keys, and even touch screen keys and voice control keys. The simplicity of the remote control not only fails to improve the user's operating experience, but is also incompatible with the increasingly rich TV content applications. Especially for middle-aged and elderly users, the mere "smart" remote control completely rejects smart TV products.

Secondly, the cost of bandwidth remains high. Influenced by national policies, the development of broadband networks in my country has always been a focus of national attention, which has precisely promoted the development of the Internet TV industry. However, with the advancement of rounds of broadband network fiber construction, there are still third- and fourth-tier cities and rural areas that cannot enjoy Internet TV services through appropriate bandwidth; this has further hindered the popularization of Internet TV products.

More importantly, the rise of the Internet TV craze requires sufficient Internet content applications to support it. Looking at the current status of the TV application market, only the video-on-demand application has emerged and become popular, while other types of applications have been simply and crudely transplanted from mobile phones and web pages. Take TV games as an example. The game content transplanted from mobile games to TV screens can neither meet users' experience needs for large-screen games nor reflect the advantages of smart hardware of smart TVs.

In the early stage of the development of the Internet TV industry, the transplantation of content applications can only be regarded as a guide. Appropriate transplantation of content applications can achieve the good effect of attracting users to transfer from mobile terminals to TV terminals, while transplanting all of them without consideration will greatly damage users' understanding and experience of Internet TV content applications. For example, a user once found a personal privacy mobile phone application "Aunt" in a certain brand of smart TV, and there were also auxiliary tool applications such as alarm clocks and driving that appeared in the smart TV application list.

Even though there are many problems, there is no doubt that Internet TV will still be the mainstream of future TV products. After the entire home appliance market has gradually become intelligent, as the only large-screen display in the smart home circle, there is no reason for TVs not to become intelligent. And the complete replacement of traditional TV by Internet TV is just a manifestation of the change of the times.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.