We’ve spent the past month looking back at the history of television, from John Logie Baird to OLED. So what’s next?
The next 5 years:
Expect to see LCDs and plasmas remain. They’ll get cheaper, thinner and their picture quality will continue to get better. Energy consumption will go down, screen sizes will go up and we the geeky consumer will always feel unsatisfied with their purchase as soon as a newer and better model gets released.
TV broadcasts will shift from the traditional form to a more “on demand” style over the internet. Services like HybridTV’s Caspa and Foxtel’s On Demand will become even more prevalent, with the ability to purchase TV shows and movies whenever you like (or download them for free with limited advertising) quickly becoming the norm.
We’ll start to see OLED and 3DTVs become more and more prevalent. They’ll both be expensive (OLED much, much more than 3D) but as time goes on, both will get better at delivering content. We’ll probably see a prototype 3D OLED TV in the next five years as well.
And Beyond:
Science fiction will become science fact, as holographic technology is refined to allow us to watch three dimensional representations of characters move around our loungerooms. Eventually, we’ll even be able to interact with the holograms as well.
(At least until the robot uprising of course, which will destroy human civilisation as we know it. Fortunately, our last remaining scientists will perfect zombie technology and create an army of undead slaves to fight the robots and reclaim the earth. Those of us who survive the holocaust will have to reinvent television, and so the cycle will begin again…)
History of TV is Giz AU’s month-long look back at the development of the world-changing medium and its influence on our daily lives.