Bloggers say set-top boxes likely to be around for a while
With the news that Sony has agreed to include the cable industry's Tru2Way platform in new televisions coming to market, some news outlets and blogs predicted the "death of the cable box." Not so fast, say IP Democracy and The Bauminator.
Cynthia Brumfield at IP Democracy lists four reasons why she thinks that cable set-top boxes won't disappear overnight.
Among those reasons: that consumers won't immediately replace their current television sets, the price of televisions with Tru2Way technology, the ever-evolving state of consumer electronics devices, and the competition from set-top box manufacturers.
Over at Jeff Baumgartner's blog The Bauminator, he says that the majority of Tru2Way devices coming to market are, in fact, more cable set-top boxes. He's right, at least for the time being - Tru2Way set-top boxes, not televisions, dominated the CableLabs showcase at The Cable Show.
But the beauty of Tru2Way is that now the consumer will decide. Some may opt for the status-quo, having the cable company provide the tuner. Others will want to pay a few dollars more for their fancy new TV in order to eliminate that extra piece of equipment and the additional remote control that goes with it.
This is hardly news. We all know that iptv is the future. IPTV is going to require set top boxes just like current solutions.
Posted by: nathan | June 03, 2008 at 09:22 PM