IPTV adoption hinges on ease of use

SINGAPORE--For Internet Protocol television (IPTV) to reach mass adoption, it will have to be "one of the easiest things to use", according to a senior Microsoft executive.

Speaking at the IPTV World Forum Asia held here today, Sal Arora, Microsoft's senior director of product management of Microsoft TV, drove home this point in his keynote and emphasized the importance of ensuring that complexity does not get in the way of adoption.

"If we ever want to get IPTV to a mass market…there's one thing that will always be important: that it (IPTV) has to fundamentally be one of the easiest things to use," Arora said.

"I believe that's one thing people like about the TV," he noted, adding however that making IPTV technology easy to use is a challenge for all stakeholders.

Arora also said content consumption preferences have changed, fueling the potential of IPTV.

"There's a reason why people are switching from the TV set to other places like the mobile [device], the PC and the Internet," he said. "The TV as a device is no longer fulfilling that need for them to be connected with other people; it's not fulfilling the need for them to get a personal service and they cannot use it to be social with anybody else."

The television, he added, "is just a device where you watch content today".

"People are looking for technology that helps them be more sociable, is very personal to them, [and] helps them connect with everything out there," Arora said.

IPTV World Forum Asia is on from Dec. 5 to 7 at the Suntec Convention Center. More than 2,000 visitors are expected to attend the three-day event which has attracted 80 exhibitors and over 300 speakers from telecoms, cable and mobile operators and leading content owners.