Rants and musings of Paul Scott
Paul Scott on 2011-12-20 12:24:31
DSTV decoders and set top boxes in generalDSTV has an opportunity to do something awesome with their decoders. Many people have the things in their homes already, and with the next iteration of undersea cables coming along, more people will be able to make more use of broadband connections. Put these things togather and we have some ideas that may or may not be worth exploring...
Imagine the following: A set top box with a programmable API. Sure, keep the proprietary signal decoder bit proprietary, but open up an API on device for 3rd party apps. Create an appstore concept for developers to lodge apps in and make them downloadable via the satellite tv connection. This could open up a whole new world for people to explore and have more fun with their tv, which, after all, will translate into more folks signing up for the services and more folks spending more time using the services.
The tech could be simple. Android possibly, or a simple python interpreter would make the barrier to entry really low and the appstore ecosystem would flourish quickly. Paid for apps that would add in value added services could be deployed fast and easily, as well as be maintained from a central repository.
With something like this, there would be an app to tweet minute by minute football results! No need to watch your phone all the time, just set it to go and relax!
What do you think?
Comments for this post
duiwels On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:39:02 +0200
Tivo already has this with pre-installed apps for Twitter, BBC iPlayer, Spotify, Youtube and a few others, with the option to download more.
Nice blog, by the way - found it c/o tweet by @rafiq - I especially liked your idea of VoIP only phones, though expect it would still require the expensive inftrastucture of mobile masts for coverage in remote areas.
G.
