Is There A Future For Smart TV?

Does the smart TV have the potential to save our televisions from Digital Darwinism?
The way we entertain ourselves has progressed tremendously since the days of huddling around the family TV set for an episode of primetime. These days, many millennials have leapfrogged TV ownership altogether, opting instead for exclusive use of internet-enabled services such as  Netflix and Hulu to access their favorite shows. American market research leader Nielson found this year that most “Zero-TV” households are those of adults under 35, who make up 44% of all television abandoners.
Considering how  far we are into the internet age, it’s slightly curious that the convergence of TV and internet hasn’t taken off in an attempt to combat the trend of going TV-less. So-called “Smart TVs”—which are essentially a television set with integrated Internet capabilities—have not made as much of a stake in market share as they could have.
Why is that? It’s possible, first of all, that it’s a reflection of a generational chasm. Older generations see the internet and TV as two distinct entities with no need to mix the two. On the other hand, younger people see the internet as the only conduit they need to access information and entertainment—why pay for another service when the internet gives them everything they want? There are few in the middle space who see the need to meld the two together, thus consumer demand hasn’t been strong enough.
The second, and perhaps most damaging, reason is faults in early iterations of Smart TV products. In 2015 Samsung SmartTV customers were warned that a fault in the voice command function meant that the devices were potentially recording their conversations and selling the contents of such to third party operators. This wasn’t some horrific mistake, but rather a policy stated in Samsung’s privacy policy for UK consumers: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party”. For obvious reasons this was a huge issue with consumers and likely did a lot of irreparable damage to the idea of Smart TV itself, not just the brand.  
The truth is that we’re still in somewhat of an early adopter phase for Smart TV. The question is whether Smart TV is something that will go to mass adoption or fall by the wayside as more and more consumers make the shift to accessing entertainment solely via the internet.
If anyone can make Smart TV catch on for good, it’s likely to be consumer darling Apple who appear to be having a stab at the sector with the recently-released second iteration of Siri-enabled Apple TV. This will always be the go-to for consumers already within the Apple ecosystem as it allows them to use their other devices, subscriptions and logins seamlessly in conjunction with such a service. So far, while Apple has released the second version of its media streaming box that’s equipped with Siri, it has not released an integrated TV system that could replace a conventional monitor altogether. And of course, those not willing to enter the Apple ecosystem will never be a fan of such a product as it limits users to Apple apps and services.
Other players in the game appear to be Amazon, who have a competing media streaming box to Apple’s and there’s also Sony Android TV, a major player in the UK market. What’s clear is that there seems to be a narrowing window of opportunity in which the major Smart TV players need to make an impact. Otherwise, consumers may simply move on or another innovation will replace the idea altogether.
Surely our TVs are not going the way of the digital dodo? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter @VPSNET.