Combining Hardware And Software To Give Smaller OEMs A New Weapon In The TV OS Wars.

We’ve been talking for a while about the Emerging Smart TV Ecosystem and about how the coming TV OS wars are going to be the industry’s biggest issue in the years to come.

This week there’s a bit of news from our friends at Foxxum that provides an excellent illustration of how that’s all playing out.

Let’s start with smart TVs and what actually makes a TV smart, which is the ability to connect to the internet. 

Doing so requires a motherboard (among other things, but the motherboard is key). 

Now if you’ll recall, there’s a whole lot of world out there that’s serviced by small local TV manufacturers, the type who don’t readily have access to vast supplies of motherboards… and who, if they did manage to acquire some motherboards, would still need some sort of operating system to run on said motherboards, the operating system being what provides the user-facing interface on the TV set.

I’ll throw in too that the vast majority of the OEMs I am referring to are in emerging economies. 

That’s where the Foxxum news comes into play.

Foxxum makes operating systems for OEMs who don’t want to get on the Amazon and Google bandwagon. (There are, as I will explain shortly, lots of good reasons for this.)

Their OS4 software solution is now going to be integrated into printed circuit boards (PCBs) from CTVE, a hardware company known for manufacturing display control products like PCBs.

This hardware + software combo gives these smaller OEMs an out-of-the-box solution to turn their low-priced TVs into low-priced smart TVs, providing local manufacturers with a way to compete against global consumer electronics brands while avoiding having to get into bed with tech giants like Google and Amazon.

As for why the latter is a bad thing, remember who has the upper hand in these relationships. (Hint: it’s not the small local OEM.) That allows the tech giants to dictate everything from the way that viewing data is collected and then used right on down to programming choices. Given that both Amazon and Google have their own global content brands, that is unlikely to bode well for local content providers.

So having local OEMs who partner with local content providers can be a way to ensure that the local TV industries in these countries thrive and survive, giving them an outlet for their programming on both linear and streaming. 

Better still, the OS4 operating system is sophisticated and full featured and thus well-positioned to take on global giants.

That is crucial because increased competition forces all parties to continue to innovate, to not be content to rest on their laurels and just assume consumers will be content with “good enough”  because they don’t have any other options.

Given that there are more than 600 local and regional OEMS and TV brands, there’s a whole lot of white space/blue sky/green field (choose your color-coded metaphor) in the market, which is far from mature, at least outside of the U.S. 

As Foxxum CEO Ronny Lutzi notes, “CVTE’s technology combined with Foxxum OS 4 will solve a major problem of OEMs and TV brands. We are delighted to move our well-established partnership with CTVE to the next level of a truly global and strategic partnership that will provide the most competitive CTV solution worldwide.” 

Wang Bin, Head of RD in the TV Department of CVTE, adds, “We have always admired Foxxum’s dedication to customer satisfaction. With Foxxum OS 4 we now have a very attractive product, one our global customers have been waiting for.”

So the battle continues.