So-called “smart” technology is supposed to make our lives easier by connecting our electronic devices to the Internet and providing an intelligent, easy-to-navigate user interface that allows access to curated, relevant content instantly. In some smart product areas — for example, phones — hardware manufacturers, service providers and technology developers work hand-in-hand. While not completely seamless, it’s relatively easy to watch a video or access content from your phone.
In other spaces, however, those three technology providers have yet to learn to work together. In particular, the television industry has made little progress when compared with smartphones. Watching TV should be all about the user experience. It’s what drives the consumption of a wider range of content and future development of more personalized TV features that will attract a larger viewing audience.
But the process of actually accessing content on a television often feels like the user experience is the last consideration. With cable service providers, VOD services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and so forth, the amount of content viewers must wade through just to find something to watch is overwhelming. For an industry that’s supposed to be all about the customer experience, why is the user interface for television so slow to improve?
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