With the spread of the internet, products from various categories presented the whole different value after they were equipped with the internet access function. From consumer products to home entertainment products, the internet brought out the new digital home concept, coupled with the popularity of video and audio entertainment, loads of discussion was arose on connected TV. Recently, since Google TV and Apple iTV which have been aggressively devoted to the segment adopt respective operating systems, they become the interactive smart TV that attracts lots of attention. According to WitsView, a research division of TrendForce, the market scale of worldwide connected TV is estimated to reach 40 million units, or 20% penetration rate, this year. Yet, the market expansion of smart TV as well as the attraction of the open and interactive multimedia content are expected to boom the sales of connected TV. Its market scale is forecast to reach 0.2 billion units, or surpass 65% penetration rate, worldwide in 2015.

 

Connected TV has been out there for several years. It has a built-in internet access which is able to connect peripheral hardware through Ethernet or Wi-Fi internet device. With the improvement of the global internet connection speed and the upgrade of the peripheral hardware, the internet access slowly becomes the standard equipment on mid- and high-end models among TV brand vendors. WitsView’s analyst Linda Lin pointed out that the primary problem of connected TV was that the content from individual providers had significant differences from one another. The integrated momentum must be formed among multimedia, software and hardware by TV brand vendors. First of all, in terms of Google TV’s software, Intel microprocessor, Android platform and chrome browser are added innovatively; in its hardware, Google allies with top-tier vendors such as Sony and Logitech. Second of all, Apple iTV aims at Apple’s highly-entertaining multimedia content as well as its integration with other Apple products. The strong support of the supply system leads to the smart TV’s remarkable momentum recently.

 

Looking into the prospection of connected TV and smart TV, whether they will expand their market successfully through the increase of overall value will have to rely on the amount of content available on the platform, user-friendly interface, the reasonable fee rate and the convenience to connect other related products. However, the more important fact is the popularity of the internet.