Smart TV Alliance unites for single smart TV app platform
LG and Philips are the first to join the Smart TV Alliance, a group dedicated to creating a single platform for smart tellies.
Alliance assemble! LG and Philips are the first manufacturers to join the Smart TV Alliance, a group dedicated to creating a single software platform for Internet-connected tellies.
Currently there are loads of different smart TVs out there, many of which are running different platforms and have different (and thoroughly underwhelming) app selections. The brilliantly named Smart TV Alliance aims to change all that, forging a brand-new smart TV platform that all manufacturers can share.
If major manufacturers answer the heroes' call and swear allegiance to the Alliance, developers would only need to make an app once to have it work on loads of different brands' TVs.
That would help smart telly manufacturers compete against, oh, I don't know, a TV set made by a company that already has a hugely popular app platform -- say Apple, just for instance.
"Before today, the Smart TV industry was a very difficult market for both application developers and TV manufacturers," LG's Bong-seok Kwon declared, cape billowing in the wind. "Smart TV Alliance creates a larger playing field which encourages developers to create more and better TV applications.
"At the same time," Kwon continues, "giving manufacturers and consumers the richest source of movies-on-demand, music services, games, social networking and more."
Truth, justice and a non-proprietary smart TV ecosystem -- these are the things the Smart TV Alliance fights for. Smart TV Alliance is looking for more manufacturers to take up the remote, so here's hoping we see the likes of Samsung, Toshiba and Panasonic signing up ahead of any potential Apple announcement.
Will a unified apps platform make smart TVs better? Do you think other manufacturers will heed the call? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or over on our Facebook wall.