My selfie above, from CES 2006 in Las Vegas got me into thinking about what technology is all about. Especially after having attended similar shows for the past 25 years or so.
The word technology has Greek origins, combining “craft” and “discourse” a lot of which happens at every Las Vegas CES event. It plays itself out in many ways in four days and nights of events in Las Vegas , press conferences, walkabouts, personal meetings, and hands-on on what might show up in store shelves.
The CES 2006 “technology” playing field was much different than today. The BlackBerry smartphone had the North American market to itself with its “CrackBerry” line while Korean, Japanese and US tech giants still showed flip phones. The first Apple iPhone was a year away to be followed by the first Android phone in 2008.
TV’s commanded the most attention. Plasma was the flat panel TV to beat then. While Panasonic flirted with a prototype 105-inch plasma, Samsung showed an 82-inch LCD it was able to deliver in stores the same year. OLED TV was an unheard name than, brewing in several TV maker labs.
FFW to 2015: plasma is dead, and LG OLED TV’s are the ones to beat in looks and image quality. Competitors seem baffled by LG’s promise to deliver more than half a dozen difficult to make sleek and thin models for consumers to choose from by spring. LED/LCD Ultra HD or quad TVs with curves are plentiful from all makers, with online smarts and top models come close to OLED visuals, if you can afford their top-tier price.
But now, it isn’t the glitz of the new brighter and faster TVs that should command attention. After all, once you turn on your old 780p flat panel TV (hey I still have one of those) or brand new ULTRA HDTV and dim the lights, the visuals all step aside to what is really important to today’s TV watching.
High Quality Content! Lot’s of it!
TV makers are falling over each other to partner with content providers like Netflix UHD approval ratings and are working deals with other streaming media providers to feed a UHD screen’s insatiable appetite for trillion-pixel two-hour movies.
Samsung US streaming Pandora-like Milk Music service which launched on Samsung phones last year, went live on Samsung TVs January 5. It’s also on any brand Android phones but I wouldn’t wait for Samsung’s Milk Video streaming available to Samsung TVs only this spring, to play on other TV brands.
All this, leaving Canadian Samsung customers in the cold. More on that later.
In fact, industry observers suggest consumers wait it out before jumping into any of the newest top tier technology TV models and not be swayed by their special streaming services. Eventually all media streaming services will find themselves running on all brands, not just Netflix.
There’s more to than just “technology.”
Check out my Edmonton Global TV Sunday Morning News Tech Talk at www.globalnews.ca/techuntangled