This just keeps getting more and more interesting...
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor maker, said it is teaming up with cellular phone giant Nokia to jointly develop set-top boxes that integrate the Internet with digital television.
The companies plan to make their announcement Tuesday at the Telecom 99 industry trade show in Geneva.
The companies said that product development is underway and they expect to introduce the first products in the second half of next year. The boxes will be aimed at the European market, which is leading the digital-TV revolution.
The companies hope to create more personalized television viewing, melding data and services available on the Internet.
"It's about developing a personalized television experience and making it interactive to the level a consumer wants it to be," said Ganesh Moorthy, vice president of marketing at Intel's home products group.
Moorthy cited examples such as current stock prices from a personalized portfolio, sports scores of favorite sports teams, and weather, all scrolling across the TV at the same time a television program is on.
Intel will provide the processors, software and some broadcast technology.
The companies said they plan to use the new Linux operating system for the set-top boxes, running the Mozilla Internet browser software. Both Linux and Mozilla are developed by the open source community of software developers and are free over the Internet.
The move is the latest by Intel in the set-top box arena. In June, Intel announced a pact with Hughes Electronics Corp. to develop digital satellite set-top boxes. The first product will be America Online's TV satellite receiver which will support AOL TV.
Analysts said that the two companies may face some challenges ahead because they have selected technical specifications that are not yet widely used in Europe.
Intel and Nokia said they plan to develop their products around the ATVEF (Advanced Television Video Enhancement Forum) specification that uses Internet protocols so that broadcasters can add data to a video stream.
"Over 7 million households in Europe have interactive TV, due to some recent growth in France and the U.K., and the vast majority is not based on ATVEF," said Kevin Hause, an analyst with International Data Corp.
But Hause also pointed out that he believed the focus by Intel and Nokia on integrating personalized data from the Web into television viewing is the right approach. "It's not about Web pages on your TV," Hause said. "It's about focused applications and information."
As an aside, does anyone else find it interesting that, with Intel involved, the chosen OS was Linux and not WinCE?? |
