What Smart TVs Need to Succeed
By Grant Clauser
Intel's Wilfred Martis shares his thoughts on how the smart TV concept is going to work.

The Internet and TV are finally converging, in a way consumers seem to be responding to.

Wilfred Martis, Intel's GM of consumer electronics in the digital home group, says that while we've heard this before, it's different this time. We agree.

Intel is trying to brand smart TVs as something different from Internet-connected TVs - poised to be a hot item this holiday season - that have web-based features but fall short of being smart.



In Intel's world, Martis says, a smart TV must meet the following three pillars:

Unlimited Content Access: "To do that, you need a browser." This means a smart TV shouldn't be restricted by the apps available to run on it. It should be able to grab any content that lives on the web. The only product that really does that, at the moment, sort of, is Google TV (available on some Sony products and the Logitech Revue).

Google TV happens to use Intel's smart TV technology and Atom processor. Through the Chrome browser in Google TV, ideally, a user could get to anything - Hulu, NBC, ABC - but that isn't working out at the moment because all major broadcasters are blocking Google TV's access.

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