Part III of Q&A with Matt Carinio, Sr. Business Analyst at LEVEL, enters the realm of navigation and content engagement.

Question: How far will applications extend into the way we are accustomed to browsing for and engaging with content?

With respect to mobile, applications have already changed our browsing and engagement with content.  The question really is, how will it change the way we consume content on other devices like televisions?  We are already seeing the first real wave of mainstream televisions being marketed with application integration and internet connectivity. This concept really isn’t anything new (WebTV ‘95) and its current form still feels to be a bit ahead of its time and somewhat disparate.  After all, are consumers really saying they want this functionality or are manufactures telling them they need it?  To tell you the truth, I am more interested in who wins the war of content accessibility on televisions when the time comes.  Do television manufactures build in the technology to access applications, the Internet and drive the user experience or will the cable communication companies vie for control therefore relegating TVs back to traditional display functionality. I see this shaping up similarly to the DVR wars of the late ‘90s when the discussions were of putting DVRs in televisions and eventually the cable and satellite companies got serious and seem to have won that battle.