TV apps (also called "widgets") are applications that are embedded inside a TV, a Blu-ray player or a media player. Each TV app provides a single-screen user interface to an Internet service such as video-on-demand from Netflix or Internet radio from Pandora. A typical Internet connected TV comes with many TV apps included as shown below.
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| Internet-connected TVs include many preloaded apps. |
The basic IR remote included with the TV is used to select one of those apps. For example, if we select Netflix by clicking on its icon, we will see a list of recommended movie and TV episode titles. We can then scroll left and right and press a key on the remote to select a movie from this list.
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| The Netflix TV app user interface. |
The first sign of trouble manifests itself when we try to search for a particular title. Typically, we are forced to use the basic IR remote that came with the TV in conjunction with a "soft" keyboard that is displayed on the TV screen. For each letter that we want to type, we need to use the remote's arrow keys to move the cursor to the corresponding key displayed on the TV screen and then press the OK key on the remote. It works but most humans will not attempt to do this more than once --
so if you like searching for video, consider using a two-screen user interface to control the TV.
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| A smart TV controlled by a dumb remote creates an unusable keyboard. |
There are many other problems with TV apps:
- The user interface is completely inconsistent between TV manufacturers and even between different TVs from the same manufacturer. This means that the TV in the living room will not behave the same as the TV in the bedroom.
- It's difficult to read the small text on the screen without getting off the couch.
- The response of the user interface is very slow and tedious.
- App publishers such as Netflix need to create and support different versions of each app for every TV model from every manufacturer. Netflix employs hundreds of expensive programmers for just this purpose.
Contrast this with a two-screen user interface where the remote is smart and the TV can be dumb.
- The user interface is perfectly consistent between TVs, across manufacturers and models.
- Even the smallest text can be easily read without getting up from the couch because the user interface in in the user's hand.
- The response of the user interface is fast and enjoyable.
- App publishers only need to create one app (a mobile app) to be on all TVs.
And, of course, searching for video is very easy because the keyboard is in the user's hand, rather than on a distant TV screen, and each keyboard key can be activated by simply touching it.
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| Searching for video with the two-screen user interface is simple because the keyboard is in the user's hand rather than on a distant TV screen. |
Also, note in the above figure that the TV screen only shows the video. The entire two-screen user interface is contained on the touchscreen of the mobile device.
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