Following the recent advances by Google and Apple, the two ICT industry leaders at the smart TV market, more and more software development companies are offering what is often referred to as smart TV apps, hardware-enabled support of three different technologies.
Instant entertainment is basically smartphone-style applications that enable users to view stream movies, videos, music, social networking sites, news, weather, and financial data. For example, Google TV smart set-top boxes and smart TVs support the Android mobile platform and have thousands of working applications already available on the Android Market.
Not all but the majority of the smart TV devices also allow users to access the internet via a browser. Search for the content of your liking via a browser, just as you do with your computer. Google TV smart devices with Android support extensions for Chrome browser that can also be custom developed.
Smart TV products can combine TV channels, apps, the internet, and the home network into a searchable content collection. Multimedia search allows to type in the name of a movie, click search, and see the theatre listings and any related video content on the internet.
At the moment Google and Apple offer four technologies to start the app development for smart TV.
1. Android mobile application development for smart TV sets and smart set-top boxes. These are your usual Android apps with large screens in mind.
2. Optimized websites to be displayed on large screens. Every Google TV comes with a Chrome browser.
3. Multi-screen apps for mobile devices and smart TVs. Use your phone or tablet as a gamepad to play games on smart TVs. Apple has a wonderful feature AirPlay to help with multi-screen apps.
4. Video discovery. Google has certain requirements for the streamed video content. Developers and software companies should be aware of the new video site map and other instruments to make your video available through Google search.
Smart TV apps can be an excellent business solution to bring branded content to millions of living rooms all over the world.
