Intel and Yahoo announced an open widget-based platform to embed applications directly on the TV at the Intel Development Forum this week in San Francisco. This latest move to bring Internet applications to the TV sounds interesting, especially since it includes the support of several major CE manufacturers.

John DiLoreto
Analyst and Editor for
Insight Media

So far, there’s been little success in trying to make the TV work like a web browser, even though some became rich and famous with WebTV. Still, Internet-connected TVs are growing in acceptance in Japan - mostly because the content sources are more concentrated and more homogenous.

The Intel-Yahoo partnership was seen as the biggest surprise of this year’s Intel Developer Forum. Historically, Intel has never been able to crack the television market, which has traditionally employed set-top boxes running non-Intel processors. But Intel has used this IDF to make its case that Internet application software runs best on the Intel architecture. And apparently several consumer electronics OEMs bought the story.

In a keynote address by Eric Kim, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group, he was joined by representatives from Comcast, Disney and Sony, with supporting statements from CBS, Motorola, Samsung and Toshiba.

Great theatre, but what does it mean for consumers? Although the technology is available now, tangible solutions will have to wait for actual OEM product commitments. None were mentioned.

Intel is looking for a turnaround in the consumer space. One of the failed attempts to merge the Internet and television was "Viiv," Intel’s brand for a connected media platform, which the company launched in 2005 and refined a year later. However, even Kim admitted, Viiv was not a "purposeful foundation" because it was designed around the PC.

The latest Intel SoC initiative, Canmore, was first announced at CES last January. The 150M-transistor chip is based on the Pentium M and can be manufactured on Intel’s leading-edge manufacturing processes. It consumes far less power and can be produced cheaply, leading to a cost-effective product for end customers, Kim said. Pricing, however, was not announced.

Its hardware/software video decode capabilities include both standard-def MPEG-2 streams as well as high-def H.264 MPEG-4 video.

The Intel-Yahoo partnership either will require a set-top box, or the whole Intel platform integrated into the TV. The price or availability of such set-top boxes was not known, but Kim said a set-top box would cost "substantially less" than the $300 charged by Sony for a similar device. The technology could also be built directly in to TVs, Blu-ray players, or other devices.

The Intel-Yahoo demo booth included functional boxes from Taiwanese makers Tatung and Gigabyte, who apparently considers this approach viable.

At the core of the software platform is the Yahoo Widget Engine, also known as Konfabulator, now in its fifth generation, said Patrick Barry, vice president of Connected TV for Yahoo. He also said it’s the same engine used for Yahoo’s desktop PC widgets.

The TV experience features a "river of widgets" flowing across the bottom of the TV screen and can include integration with Flickr, stock prices, or other widgets. Another feature expands the widget (or "snippet") into a vertical "Sidebar" along one side of the TV, where "applications can run in all their glory."

"We expect that the TV dock will be personalized by different users," Barry said. That will include the ability to log in via a PIN and parental controls, he said. Even other media can be accessed via DLNA.

Widgets? Dock? Sidebar? On your TV? Great! Sounds like the latest path of overcoming the failed market strategy of having your TV look like a PC is to merely make it look more like a Mac! Although I might agree that it’s a step in the right direction, is it really what couch potatoes are looking for?