Betting on TV system differentiation, where is the smart TV industry heading?

As the highlight of this year's CES, smart TV products are extremely popular, almost bringing the annual CES back to its original position in the home appliance market.

But what is different from previous TV new product exhibitions is that at this CES, in addition to the revolution and innovation of major manufacturers in product hardware technology, the TV operating system in smart TVs has also become a key development direction for major manufacturers to compete fiercely.

TV systems seek differentiation, making intelligence no longer just empty talk

At the beginning of the smart TV industry, Google's Android system was recognized as the best choice for smart TV operating systems. The open source, plasticity, and maturity of the Android system can be said to be the important reasons why many TV manufacturers and developers choose it as the smart TV operating system. Even in the initial period of development, the various advantages of the Android system helped its smart TV quickly become the trend of the industry and was accepted by users.

However, as the smart TV industry moves towards a future trend of continuous maturity and growth, the defects existing in the Android system have gradually begun to emerge, and the so-called operating system differentiation is nothing more than the different degrees of optimization of the system interface by different companies. In response, in order to seek a better smart TV operating experience, major TV manufacturers have begun to turn to TV systems other than the Android system.

At this year's CES, Samsung officially launched its Smart TV based on the Tizen operating system, Panasonic announced its revamped Firefox OS operating system, and LG brought out its own Web OS operating system. It can be said that in order to pursue a simpler smart TV operating experience, major manufacturers not only racked their brains in operating system development, but also formed a trend of de -Androidization .

Android's powerful application resources are indeed very attractive, but after Google gradually tightened its control over smartphone manufacturers' modification of the Android system, TV manufacturers also seemed to predict that it might be difficult to adjust the Android system according to their needs in the future to optimize the user experience of smart TVs.

In fact, from the great importance that major manufacturers attach to smart TV operating systems, we can see that the overall development trend of the smart TV industry is not optimistic at present. Smart TV products that are simply "Internet + Android" cannot convince consumers. Various drawbacks such as cumbersome operation, complex content, and repeated applications have become bottleneck factors in the promotion of smart TVs.

At present, both manufacturers who still use the Android TV system and companies that independently develop new operating systems hope to provide users with truly smart TVs. Such smart TVs should not only have intelligent functions, rich content, powerful and user-friendly human-computer interaction, but also applications that can share content or program lists at any time.

From a topic of conversation to a necessity, smart TVs still need to be popularized

Looking at the overall situation, almost all manufacturers at this year's CES have provided their own smart TV products, regardless of whether their main display technology is 4K, quantum dots, or curved screens. In order to truly occupy the leading position in the smart TV industry, Google replaced the original Google TV system with the new Android TV system at the Google I/O Developer Conference in June last year before CES.

Therefore, at this CES, Sony, Sharp, Philips and others have launched their own new smart TVs with Android TV systems.

It is predictable that Google may change the current complicated and chaotic situation of smart TV operating systems with the lower-priced Android TV, and provide potential possibilities for changing the way the TV industry operates by narrowing the differentiation.

At present, in addition to the unsatisfactory actual operation experience of most products, the lack of explosive smart applications in smart TVs is also the key problem. Unlike the mobile phone industry, even if the application interface of smart TVs is eye-catching, if there is no finishing touch that makes consumers willing to spend money in the end, the entire smart TV industry is still just a "spectacle".

In this regard, at this CES, Samsung and LG have developed their own smart TV operating systems into smart home systems, hoping that after the entire home system is established and matures, they will not lag behind the development of the industry.

In fact, in addition to the predictable smart home industry, applications such as TV games, TV shopping, and online education based on entertainment, life, and health may also light up the smart TV market. At the 2015 CES, the appearances of several major international game console giants and the amazing products of many domestic TV game developers may have injected possibilities into this development trend.

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.