There is no shortage of impressive new features and technologies coming to the humble television, as they continue to get bigger and bigger whilst becoming as thin as an iPad.
With all these innovations at their fingertips, what features do people really want in their next TV? Some says their next purchase simply has to have 3D playback or USB support, maybe even an impressive energy rating.
But when it all boils down to it, the majority still hold picture quality and screen size, above all.
Inside CI brings shows us this , detailing a new global consumer research study by Sony which lays out the key considerations by buyers looking to purchase a new television.
Mainstream buyers rank picture quality, screen size, sound quality, price and a full HD 1080p resolution as their top five important considerations, with a slim TV screen, its energy rating, ease of use remote and design of the set following in the next four positions.
Perhaps the three big features that make the new smart TVs ‘smart’ rank in the final three spots. 3D ready support, Internet web browsing and Internet video hold these spots, which “shocked” Hiroshi Sakamoto, deputy senior general manager of Sony’s home entertainment group, according to Inside CI.
The full list:
Sony internal research: Consumer needs for TV
That doesn’t appear to stop Sony from trying to force 3D upon us, with the company said to be planning to release 100 3D Blu-ray titles before the summer, which will “help revitalise 3D,” said Sakamoto.
The report may be general in its nature but it will be interesting reading for television vendors and service providers who are looking to deliver applications and video streaming services to new connected TVs.
It is often the case that consumers wait for TV technologies to become established before buying into them, especially when it is accompanied with a price drop. At the moment, consumers are enjoying their TV straight up, suggesting there is a lot of work for companies to do to convince us otherwise.
Gartner: Android tablets to hold 39% market share by 2015
Following its recent report on the smartphone market, research firm Gartner has released its analysis on the current state of the tablet market, predicting that over the next four years Android tablets will begin to penetrate the market, holding 39% of tablet sales by 2015.
Apple’s iOS is expected to remain the most popular tablet computing platform in the short-term, accounting for 69% of tablet sales in 2011 but falling to 47% by 2015.
Gartner says that attempts to compete with Apple have left manufacturers offering hardware capable of rivalling iOS-powered devices but have neglected platform ecosystems, ensuring powerful tablet devices aren’t competing on terms of applications, services and “overall user experience”.
However, Google’s Honeycomb platform, its first tablet focused Android software, could assist manufacturers with their new products, offering a complete tablet experience.
Google’s decision to hold the release of its tablet-centric Honeycomb operating system is likely to slow Android tablet penetration initially, as prices remain unchanged due to the lack of competition. With Honeycomb-powered tablets coming to market later than planned, Gartner caps Android’s market share over the next year, but expects it to boom thereafter thanks to the lack of fragmentation of the platform.
RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to help its QNX platform emerge as a player in the tablet space. Supporting web standards and aiming at the business market, Gartner sees it as a viable alternative to Apple or Android, holding a 10% market share by 2015.
The outlook is bleak for MeeGo and WebOS, the research firm believing that the weak presence of the operating systems in the smartphone market will limit their opportunities and appeal unless HP and Nokia/Intel can substantially increase the visibility of the platforms to consumers.
HTC launches Desire 310 entry-level smartphone with 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 4.5 display
HTC has announced a new entry-level handset in the form of the HTC Desire 310, a device with a 4.5-inch display that runs Android 4.2.
It might not have the spec list of a flagship handset, and that 4.5-inch display does only offer an FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels) resolution, but the Desire 310 includes some of the features found on more expensive HTC devices, like BlinkFeed (including offline reading mode) and Video Highlights.
Other key hardware specs include a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 4GB of storage, microSD support, and a 5-megapixel camera on the rear. The Desire 310 is set to go on sale in a range of colors from “the end of April” in the UK via O2, Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse. We’re still waiting for confirmation on when it might arrive in other markets, and will update when we find out.