The battle for living room: Tablets make Smart TVs and Media Center superfluous

Many are puzzled who wins the battle for living well, and whether it ever since the internet on the TV creates - it is this question long ago resolved. Only the answer was different from what was thought for years: Tablets and smartphones have taken over this role, together with streaming boxes.

Media Center PCs and the Internet to the TV are already about as long as "close to a breakthrough" as the fabled internet fridge that expired food itself ordered. And probably both approaches will suffer the same fate: they will never see their breakthrough. The times when it could have folded, are now over. The mass diffusion of smartphones and tablets makes both superfluous at a stroke. And that's bad news for many a hopeful manufacturer.

Some solutions for smart TVs

Smart TVs are certainly all the rage and are bought as opposed to the internet fridge actually. The only question is how they are purchased because of their really smart skills. Journalist Richard Gutjahr showed some time ago with an example, how much faster with him, the combination of Apple TV and iPhone works compared to its Smart TV:

Apple and it may be, the dreams of the Microsoft Xbox, Sony could do with the PlayStation and Nintendo with the Wii (U) destroyed, ever hoped to establish as in all living rooms. It does not say an Apple fanboy, but a former Microsoft engineer who has worked on the Xbox. Microsoft never managed to build an ecosystem, as it was Apple succeeded with its App Store. And there is something in it.

When playing Power game consoles are of course beyond doubt. But playing is not everything, what people want to do with their TV in the living room next to TV.

The TV program is just one feature among several

The contents of today come from many sources. The classic TV program is increasingly only one application among many -. As telephoning a Smartphone Movies and series also come from a physical media, streamed from various portals on the web or as a file located on the home network. A TV, you can maybe equip with the right computing power to turn it into a computer that does not solve the problem, for example, the complicated operation. And that's also the problem of a Media Center PC. If one wants to mess with really umpteen buttons on a remote control to select one by one through endless menus?

The Apple TV in turn provides a greatly reduced surface, which means we can simply go with the simple remote control, but the options are limited in comparison to a strong PC. Also, every iPhone and iPad may be more than the Apple TV. No wonder that in the rumor mill for a long time by an App Store for Apple's small TV box is mentioned. It would be logical to extend its functionality.

Tablets and smartphones: With vastly superior app selection and operation

But even then consider a smartphone or tablet of Streamingbox. Whether Android, iOS, Windows Phone, or something else: There are numerous apps for every occasion. The devices have been comfortably in your hand and they have a smooth action. They get their contents from the Internet or the local network. In the case of the Apple universe, you can easily play content via AirPlay from your iPhone or iPad to bring to the big screen - movies, music, games. This is what Richard Gutjahr has demonstrated in his video above. Why do you need there's a media center or a Smart TV? like Google did with the Nexus Q available , then the moment was not yet on the market. It is intended as a small box that acts as the TV equivalent of the Android device and the Play Store. And one can assume that Google pursued this idea in his laboratory.

But it's not just about the flexibility of content: Even the Web is via smartphone and tablet while watching TV at all times - with capable browsers, without split screen and with simple operation. And let's face it: the Twitter stream you have now is not really 85 inches appear near the crime scene to get going, which you can still like to have in hand. So you have to invent anything new. That's all there.

Whether the Apple TV ever leave the prototype stage, which he may have? This raises the question of what it should really bring Apple. They are equipped with Apple TV, iPhone and iPad already well positioned. The combination of smartphone / tablet and Streamingbox is what was waiting for all these years.

What role will the next generation of game consoles have?

Now the question arises whether the consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo still must play their part. How well the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation arrive, we will see. But they are not the horses, on which one should bet when it comes to living room computer, seems to me clearly. Smartphones and tablets are available in more and more households and have especially many other applications. You can here everything can be an Internet TV and Media Center PC times.