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iTV
Just like anyone, when I saw the news say that the world’s first interactive tv was being built by Filipinos, I had a “YAY!” moment. But that was all it was. A moment.
As it turns out, it isn’t an interactive teevee at all, but a mash-up. A television “enhanced with the functions of a computer with interactive internet capability.”
Riiiiiight. Don’t we call that a tv tuner card?
That headline – echoed on the internet – is such a typical delusion of grandeur, isn’t it? What’s annoying is that a tv+computer mash up is a good enuff product that it doesn’t need an artificial boost from such a lousy misrepresentation lie.
First of all, ‘interactive TVmeans that viewers are allowed to interact with television content. Now there are several levels of interactivity, ranging from the very low (using a remote control, f’rinstance), to the intermediate (such as pay-per-view), to the high levels (where the viewer is able to affect the outcome of the program in real time).
Now there are alot of television sets that do this, so Inovent’s claim of being “first” rings awfully hollow.
Second, true interactivity means that the viewer must have meaningful control over the content she is watching. Usually, this means that the teevee must be connected in some way back to the broadcaster. Through this link, the viewer can then send information that will cause a change in the viewing experience. For instance, if I’m not liking what the contestant on stage is doing, I can punch in a command so that instead of seeing the stage, I can watch the input coming from the backstage camera. I imagine the chaos backstage at a beauty pageant will be a whole lot more entertaining. Now that would be interactive teevee.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t even seem to be what the Ilumina is offering.
It is said to be the first convergence product made in the Philippines that synthesizes the functions of an LCD television and a personal computer.
Which is exactly what a mash-up is.
Maybe the problem is with the use of the term iTV, which carries with it a well-accepted meaning – having been around for quite some time now. iTV, one gets the sense, refers more properly to the service being provided by the broadcaster, rather than the hardware owned by the TV viewer.
Still, quibbles about truth in advertising aside, it would be very interesting to see how the Ilumina turns out. It is sexy, after all.
Housed in a bold and minimalist curved casing, the iTV is equipped with a High Definition (HD) webcam, a Blue Ray DVD slot drive, VoIP, DVR, Wi-Fi/LAN, 1.5 Terabyte hard drive, wireless keyboard, and a Bluetooth head phone built in the back of the remote control to allow motion gesture base.
The spec-list makes it sounds just like a computer, tho’ doesn’t it? Incidentally, when I was in the US recently, the first thing I looked for upon getting into my hotel room, was the remote control. I didn’t find it. Instead, I found a keyboard and a little standy on the side table explaining that I had to pay 5 USDollars to check my e-mail, and 20 USDollars for 24-hour internet access. And guess what? I used the teevee.
On a final note, Brian (Quebencgo, the inventor) added that the Ilumina LCD iTV aims to “free” the Filipino from the mundane experience of watching television.
Wow. The Ilumina LCD iTV is expected to hit the shelves in the first quarter of 2010. There is no definite price yet but it could range from 90,000 pesos to 120,000 pesos.
Wow. At a hundred twenny thousand pesos a pop, I’d rather stay chained to my plebeian teevee watching, thank you very much.
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Written by rom
Rom is a twenty-one year old experiment. She began life with the notion that she was a Filipino-Chinese Ilongga. Now, she just thinks of herself as Ilongga, having realized that she has failed at being Chinese. At least that's what her aku told her upon learning that she had fallen in love with a Filipino.
Filed under: News, Pop culture · Tags: first interactive TV, Ilumna, Inovent, iTV
23 Responses to "iTV"
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I dream of a day when iTV will be so legitly interactive that I could press the “Eject Kris Aquino” button every time she appears for the whole length of her shows. If I ever get to make her fly across the studio like that, I’ll be watching all of her crappy shows with gusto!
And I’ll probably enjoy ejecting Willie Revillame, Boy Abunda & Richard Gutierrez as well.
But the best would be when the tv program shows the news with politicians OH JOY!!! Ejection time comin’ up! I mean, that’s 120 grand well-spent don’tchatink?
im not fond of local tv shows either. but you know what, there are other interesting stuff that we can do with iTV. for a start, we can have an improved network gaming experience. i can think of education too as another worthwhile venture where interactivity that suits each user is critical. and then, we can probably do away with this blogging by taking it a step higher. and i mean video blogging in Smoke. how about that.
blame it on the writer and the journalistic culture he represents in his organization. Gawang tamad. see, when writers are tasked to write in terms of quantity (say 16 articles a day) and not quality… this is what you get.
Interactive TV where the viewers have meaningful control of the content? American Idol.
exactly
Reality tv is a subtle way of telling people that the law of the land is this: In order to succeed, other people must let you. Otherwise, GTFO.
So if the first, why not patent it?
im not really sure if our country is the first. the idea was already born in 2002. there was already the technology as set-top boxes by late 2006. by 2008, a number of leading consumer electronics has made it commercially available….anyway,i am still excited what ilumina has to offer.
The only problem I have w/ this blogger is that he mentions this already being available to the pulic via hotel rooms… You also don’t have the capability of storing anything as those types of webTV’s offer no type of memory.
This isn’t the point of the iTV and the company Inovent. It’s about making access to tv/internet etc. easily available in your house.
I personally love the idea that this company has come up with and when this hits the shevels I’ll be one of the 1st to purchase.
This isn’t the point of the iTV and the company Inovent. It’s about making access to tv/internet etc. easily available in your house.
Yep yep. It’s as easy as finding 90 thousand pesos to burn, yes?
In the meantime, my 25K computer lets me use dsl at 1k/month; and my 15K tv works just fine.
Here’s the thing w/ your comment on finding 90k pesos. This isn’t for everyone. The value isn’t in the cost but rather what you can do with it all together. It’s like cars. Some cost more then other then again some offer a lot more then others as well. If your the type of person that feels using your computer/dsl/tv seperatley then more power to you but to those that want a device that can enable you to shed all of that clutter then this is for you! Yes, 90k pesos is a ton to shed out but the value is (if you can afford it) in what it can offer as a sole unit for all of the functions you mentioned.
exactly adrian. i definitely agree. but something bothers me though. and its the fact that iTV is really more like a landline phone. it suffers from the fact that it just sits right there in a lonely corner. i think there is no comparison to having the mobility that cellular phones offer. mobile chipsets are becoming cheaper. memory and processor speed is exponentially increasing. and users tend to identify their personality with their mobile. so i think iTV and mobile technology, although different, will likely overtake the need of the other. And i tend to disagree with Inovent and the rest of the bright thinkers of iTV or broadcast operators. Mobile tech will edged it by the outright cost, power consumption, mobility, privacy, versatility to adapt to new advancements, and over-all user experience. Investment wise, there is usually 1 TV in a home as against mobile phones for every member of the family which is apt to change every 7 or 9 months. what do you think.
well you can have alternative devices that are way way cheaper. that is, if you want to consolidate internet and tv broadcasting or even mobile services (eg. sms, mms.. ) from one console or say tv and access it with ease and convenience. i think there is more to this that ilumina is offering. there must be.
My dear friend, i am the founder of Inovent and the champion of the ilumina LCD iTV.
The dream of the ilumina LCD iTV is to launch our countries first Consumer Electronic Brand. This will have a Halo effect to the whole country and hopefully reverse the brain drain. And the only way to penetrate the market is to find a category that is upcoming. Hence, the LCD iTV.
We have so many supporting us now. But it is sad that you, a Filipino, is seeing this as just a “mass-up.”
I will focus all my energy in finding who you are, let all the media and press know about you, and make you famous as the Filipino who is talking crap about our only chance to have our own Consumer Electronic Brand.
There is so much you don’t know about the next wave of Interactive TV. You certainly haven’t done your research with Vizio, Sony, and Samsungs Interactive TV coming out in 2010.
I will make you famous!
…make you famous as the Filipino who is talking crap about our only chance to have our own Consumer Electronic Brand.
See, this is what is wrong with the Filipino people: we don’t handle criticism well. As the “champion of the ilumina LCD iTV”, you had the opportunity to set things straight regarding your brand (as in, explain why the iTV is more than a mash-up). Instead, you vow to “focus all [your] energy in finding who [the writer is]“, which leaves me wondering how that will help “reverse the brain drain” or “penetrate the market”.
Friendly advice: don’t let one bad review of your flagship derail your priorities.
innovent,
i am not sure if this is brian replying. he’d have more sense saying ‘i will make you famous’.
we are proud to have one of our own in consumer-electronics boxes. but the comments presented by fellow bloggers are technically valid and can easily be explained for layman. think of them as customers; the more critical they are, the better they are to convert others to buy your product once convinced of the utility.
im not from innovent. but i share the same enthusiasm as all the rest of us who are software and wireless communication design architects.
peace.
Brian, if that truly is you (http://smoke.ph/?p=1192) you may be working too hard.
I’m sure your future customers and wholesale distributors will be happy to know that you are over-sensitive and tend to over react to a little criticism. You’re missing out on an opportunity to engage your critics directly and reach out to those people who are still on the fence, and trust me, there’s a lot of us. The problem sometimes with a single-minded vision such as yours is the tendency to believe your own hype.
Masyado ka bilib sa sarili mo.
Don’t get me wrong, confidence is a wonderful thing, when taken in moderation. You have to be able to back that up with skill and output. In the ocean you foresee yourself swimming in, you will encounter many critics and detractors (as I’m sure you already have, judging from this reaction) and this blogger’s words will seem kind compared to what you’ll deal with in the future, esp. when you seem to be rushing your vision to market/press.
Might you be relying a bit too much on the support of Filipinos who defend one of their own, regardless of its quality and promise? Let me draw your attention to one such product who thought the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmIB2Wb-TA0
I wonder where it is now.
I know you guys have your vision, and it is a lofty one. While one could say we Filipinos should just leave you alone to perfect your product and just support you, never let the fact that just because we are not experts who haven’t ‘done our research’ convince you that as potential customers, WE KNOW WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE IN WHAT WE WILL PAY A HUNDRED GRAND FOR.
Cyberspace is dominated by the market you are trying to reach out to, the middle class who can afford your price tag. Don’t underestimate the value in reaching out properly to US, your future potential customers. You may need a little help in that department and I suggest you bring someone on the team who can address this better than you have. You seem tired and cranky, and that’s not what your future customers want to see leading a company that might potentially go bust and leave us in the lurch with a 100 thousand peso investment and no company to service it.
Suggest you start here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16217149/The-State-of-PRMarketing-by-Brian-Solis
Oh, and yes, I do know what I’m talking about. I myself started a company with an innovative product that I marketed well enough to get exported to the USA with orders in 3 other countries. Where did we fail? Quality. The filipino mentality of “pwede na yan” killed it. Also, a partner reacted to criticism much like you are doing now. Bad move brother.
[...] post on the Ilumina iTV got a [...]
[...] couple of weeks ago, Rom Sedona of smoke.ph criticized Inovent for misrepresenting its product, while asserting that the promised functionality of the Ilumina is already possible through a PC TV [...]
This post made me subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed. Very sensible and realistic view on the matter.
Although I have to give kudos that they are doing a good job at creating this mash-up, they should have done their research on marketing. Claiming that this is a “World’s First” is not only false, but it is also shameful that Filipinos would make such a ridiculous claim. I could easily purchase a PhP 25,000 LCD TV, use is as a primary monitor for a PhP 20,000 computer with TV tuner, Internet connection and viola! TV on steroids. Plus I have extra money to spare for buying beer for my buddies and play some console games.
They could have just called it an “LCD TV Media Center”… and probably downplayed about revolutionizing the Filipino TV market, whereas in reality, the average Juan just wants his daily dose of Wowowee or Eat Bulaga.
Somehow I disagree with the idea that this is a good mash-up. Perhaps the jury is out on that. I think the hardware and software engineering and the manufacturing are a bit too mysterious and seem like an afterthought to the “marketing.” I see the product as an iMac wannabe, with a tv tuner, but without an Apple behind it. And at an iMac price!
i think this is potentially interesting.
best i can figure, its a TVscreen+ TIVO + internet access (which means email, chat, voicechat, games, surfing). OR, its a computer whose only functionality is mainly TIVO or internet access.
you can those three things with 3 separate devices. what they are proposing is to put it all in 1 device.
is this why its so expensive? a really good TV screen (LCD?) alone can be pricey. add the TIVO and the software and the internet access, mahal na.
putting different functionalities in 1 device is a good way to give value. the trick is you dont scrimp on the quality of each particular service, esp if that service is valued by the customers ur marketing to.
for example, if i value the screen, and its bad, i can just get a really good screen, connect it to my tivo/PS3/Xbox.
I had a tough time trying to find a 50 inch hdtv but I finally found it and bought it online from http://astore.amazon.com/50-inch-lg-hdtv-for-sale-20