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- Jupiter finds online shopping ventures woefully unprepared for set-top future (3-1-99) (Business Wire)
Business Wire reports Jupiter Communications found "only 20 percent of the Web's leading electronic commerce players are prepared to capitalize on the opportunity" of the set-top explosion into the living rooms of consumers. Also according to the Business Wire report, Jupiter's Bandwidth & Access Strategies director Abhi Chaki indicates that "digital set-tops will help usher a 'sit-back' interactive experience for non-PC, mass-market households." This finding is scheduled to be released during the Jupiter Consumer Online Forum VI in New York City beginning today.
Sit-Back/Lean-Back note: This "sit-back" description is similar to the "lean-back" description that I've been using with regard to TV VIEWERS. This is part of the shift from the "lean-to" PC USERS to that of the "lean-back," or "sit-back," TV VIEWERS. This is one difference that I've had to explain to computer people who are getting into set-tops or who are thinking about catering to set-top consumers. People who have been in the computer industry for a while almost all have that "lean-to" PC USER mindset. You really have to THINK TV as a "lean-back" TV VIEWER when considering set-tops and the interactive TV market.
Techie note: The news item's subheader says, "Only 20 Percent of Online Shopping Ventures Prepared with Sound." Those ventures should also consider tweaking their javascript applications, as well as java apps, so they will work properly on set-tops and look okay on the TV. Certain set-tops like the WebTV Plus will not support java until later in 1999. Also, certain javascript functions do not work on a TV like they would on a computer such as opening an overlapping window. -ruel
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
"LEAN-BACK" TV VIEWERS
AND "LEAN-TO" PC USERS: - Television is the Future (TV Net Page)
... Let me describe the "interactive TV" world this way: just think of everything coming through your TV set instead of having to use a PC for the Internet and simple computing functions. You instead turn to your TV. And you have to THINK TV and WATCH TV to understand the significant shift in emphasis from the PC to the TV for interactive communications. You have to shift from being a "lean-to" PC USER to that of a "lean-back" TV VIEWER ("lean-to" meaning leaning towards a PC monitor and "lean-back" meaning leaning back while watching a TV set; the audience is certainly different and the consumer mindset is considered to be different between the PC USER and the TV VIEWER). If you understand this shift, then you will also understand how much larger the overall TV market is in comparison to the PC market....
WITH CONVERGENCE,
YOU MAY LEAN FORWARD
BUT YOU'LL LEAN BACK
MOST OF THE TIME: - Cannes Milia media mart: "Lean Back" or "Lean Forward" (2-18-99) (The Guardian)
"Lean back" for TV watching or "lean forward" for computing? Take your pick. If you've been following these webpages, then you already know about this difference between TVs and PCs. They both converge with the new media of interactive TV. - ZDNN report on Jupiter forum: Design websites for TV (3-1-99) (ZDNN)
ZDNN quotes @Home CEO Tom Jermoluk as stating, "You have to design the interface with [television] in mind" and indicating "you can't simply display a Web site on a television and hope viewers will begin typing away." ZDNN also quotes E! Online president Jeremy Verba as stating, "You can do one-button [navigation] without leaving the remote control. But do I think people will do a lot of typing at their TVs? No."
You really have to THINK TV. "Lean-back" TV VIEWERS may lean forward once in a while for some sort of more-than-usual intensive interactivity, but they will lean back most of the time. For the most part, "lean-back" TV VIEWERS will generally want to surf the web like they surf around TV channels. They will want to easily click away on their remote controls to get new information or to easily input some sort of TV VIEWER response. And they will want to surf from screen to screen whether going to a webpage or scrolling up or down a screen at a time. -ruel
THERE ARE MORE TV SETS
OUT THERE THAN THERE
ARE PC SYSTEMS: - CNBC interview of NCI CEO Mitchell Kertzman (3-1-99) (CNBC)
NCI CEO Mitchell Kertzman says that US West came up with the @TV brandname. With regard to the @TV target market, Kertzman also says, "We have, I think, a broader target market. Our target market is modestly almost anybody with a television. So, that's a pretty good sized market. I think that people who are intimidated by the complexity of the PC, or more importantly, don't need all the functionality of the PC, or wants a device that integrates with video content." You have to also keep in mind that there are more TV sets out there than there are PCs; thus making the target TV market much larger than the PC-centric market....
- Interactive TV Top.Box.News
From the
Interactive TV Top.Box.News at Ruel.Net
Ruel's Selected News Items & Comments:
THINK OF "LEAN-BACK" TV VIEWERS
INSTEAD OF "LEAN-TO" PC USERS
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