Does ZillionTV Need A Keyboard?

Let’s face it, the whole content on the TV thing is getting interesting. When a company can launch a new set top box and get coverage from the NY Times to the Wall Street Journal, there’s still a lot of pent up enthusiasm for something to succeed. People are just clamoring for the iPhone of the TV.

ZillionTV opened its doors for business sporting the Hillcrest Labs interface that we’ve been raving about for years.  I’ve said before that this was the most intuitive interface for where the next generation of the TV set was going, and I still am convinced. Eric Taub of the NY Times summed it up best: “The technology needed to find the shows should be a hit. It’s an intuitive concept made to appeal to people familiar and comfortable with a computer mouse, icons and menus. Today, that’s just about everyone.”  Yup, couldn’t have said it better myself.

I can’t understate the difference a pointer-style interface makes when you’re digging through thousands of VoD titles, or trying to browse the Internet on the TV.  I’ve used the Roku Netflix box for a while (and like it), but the fact that I need to revert to my PC to modify my queue makes it more of an accessory than a solution.  The Apple TV is nicely done but, without a mouse, can go no where special. The ZillionTV airmouse sets a new level that everyone is quickly going to have to meet.  If you’re not working on motion enablement of your TV services yet, 1) sorry, you should be fired, and 2) you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

One thing we’ve learned in all of our work with motion-enabling the TV set is just how wedded some people are to traditional concepts when faced with a better way of doing things.  I can only pity the first car makers who had to deal with people who would say that their horse could keep them warm at night. So I’ve stopped fighting.

Indeed, the world sort of breaks down into two schools of thought when it comes to implementing completely new interfaces like this: on one hand you have the “sink or swim” crowd (see the iPhone), and on the other hand you’ve got the “have your cake and eat it too” crowd (in the phone world, the Palm Pre and T-Mobile G-1 both combine touchscreen with physical pullout keyboards).