Smart TVs require that all the work is done on the TV itself, navigating features and media content remotely using all sorts of interface shenanigans. The device I’m holding is much more suited to that task, and it’s faster. And next year, it’ll be faster and better again. My TV set doesn’t get changed all that often, but the devices I carry do, and they get much better every generation. What I call empathic TVs don’t need all that interface. They don’t need tons of features per se. They simply need to be good at listening. More EQ, less IQ. They need to be eagerly waiting to receive instructions from the device I’m carrying. They’re just big screens that know what to do when I ask them to do something, and most importantly, where to get that content from directly.
It’s true that televisions should simply behave like big screens, not full-fledged media stations, as we already have those. Good thinking from Mark Wilson, writing on Medium.