Why you should consider develop apps for big screen devices

Marcelo Iepsen — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 10:46:06 +0000

This is a small post with my thoughts about development opportunities for big screen devices.

I’ve been working with HTML based Smart TV apps for 3 years, and I remember how hard was to get answers to issues I faced. Smart TVs’ marketing wasn’t big enough to companies consider invest money — at least for my experience.

Current scenario

Smart TVs and stick devices (Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, etc.) are increasing as options to spent time watching Netflix (who doesn’t have Netflix in 2019?) and other stream platforms like Amazon Prime.

The number of Wi-Fi homes using a streaming stick or set-top increased by just 1% in the last year, to 49%. The number using a smart TV jumped 5%, to 42%.

Source: https://nscreenmedia.com/connected-tv-growth

And the scenario is not good for Pay TV providers. They lost 1,5mi subscribers past year in United States.

Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. — representing about 93% of the market — lost about 1,530,000 net video subscribers in 2Q 2019, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 420,000 subscribers in 2Q 2018.

Source: https://www.leichtmanresearch.com/major-pay-tv-providers-lost-about-1530000-subscribers-in-2q-2019/

I encourage you to join this opportunity. Broadcasting media industry already have apps for Smart TV nowadays, but I think other kind of industry can get some spot on this wave.

Technology

Here is a summarised information about technology the major manufactures are using.

Samsung

Operational System: Orsay (legacy) and Tizen
Technology: HTML/JavaScript
Reference: https://developer.samsung.com/tv/develop

LG

Operational System: Netcast (legacy) and webOS
Technology: HTML/JavaScript
Reference: http://webostv.developer.lge.com/

Sony

Operational System: Linux and Android TV
Technology: HTML/JavaScript and Android
Reference: https://www.android.com/tv/

Panasonic

Operational System: Linux and FirefoxOS
Technology: HTML/JavaScript
Reference: https://developer.vieraconnect.com/

Fire TV

Operational System: Fire OS (Android based)
Technology: Android
Rerefence: https://developer.amazon.com/en/apps-and-games/fire-tv

Roku

Operational System: Roku OS
Technology: BrightScript
Reference: https://developer.roku.com/overview

Apple TV

Operational System: tvOS
Technology: Swift
Reference: https://developer.apple.com/tvos/

Hope this post can be useful for you. Send me a message if you want to know more about. I will be happy to talk about. :)

Original post:
https://medium.com/@iepsen/why-you-should-consider-develop-apps-for-big-screen-devices-580940eab2a8

DEV Community: Marcelo Iepsen