We picked up a story today out of S. Korea that said LG is approaching digital convergence from the opposite direction with its launch (in Dec-06) of a PC-TV (the DA70) that is basically a widescreen LCD monitor with built-in PC components of a laptop computer.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
Projection Monthly

Never mind that Sony did this months (years?) before with the emphasis on the PC functionality (that happened to have a TV tuner).  There is also a plethora of media center PCs that have sold exactly the same functionality (albeit in a separate stand alone box.)  And don’t forget that single board computers in LCD-TV’s have been available from NEC and others for digital signage apps for years. 

What’s new is the change in mindset and perhaps a rallying cry from the PC/IT side of digital convergence. 

It had to happen sometime, and of course in retrospect, it already has happened.  The Consumer Electronic Industry’s top appliance - the TV, is morphing before our very eyes into something entirely different from an "appliance."  According to my e-dictionary, an appliance is "a device or instrument designed to perform a specific function, especially an electrical device, such as a toaster, for household use."  TVs have been considered appliances, but no more.

Some (most) PC vendors think that all TVs of the future will include some kind of PC running in the background - and they may well be right.  People really do want easy access to (digital) information and the TV, the most viewed display in the home today, is the logical choice.  Just take a look at the new HD-DVD and Blu-ray players.  They are basically Linux PC’s in a CE box - and that’s why they take so long to start, because they really need to "boot-up.

Yes, the TV is moving from a specific function device to a display portal that opens a whole new world of digital information.  But be careful what you wish for - because this comes at a price. 

There is something quite comforting in the lone appliance that offers both simplicity and longevity.  The CRT-TV is a case in point.  In our guest room, is a Sony 13-inch TV (KV13TR20) manufactured in May 1989.  That set is almost 20 years old, survived four regional and one cross-country move and in some ways, (SDTV) still gives the best picture in my house.  Now that’s real value and a return on my investment well beyond what I originally planned.

Imagine now if that set came integrated with 1989 components of a PC running Microsoft’s Windows 2.0 (or DOS 4.0) with Lotus 1-2-3 (they had 68% market share that year).  Perhaps the hot selling Amiga or Commodore 64 (remember?) or the latest version MacII with unix support (Ok that’s still around but no one is running unix on a MacII today.) 

You get the point.  The long-term pay-off to justify the extra cost of integrated technology into an appliance is dubious at best and vulnerable not only to support/service issues but even with an upgrade path, and longevity issues as well.  And as for that imaginary PC-TV of 1989, well it would have been gone long ago, probably never surviving the road-trip from DC to California.