TV Trends for 2013 – Gazing into the Crystal Ball

In this era of fast changing technology and new gadgets being introduced every day, how exactly is the TV technology and market faring? Is it keeping pace, or is it lagging behind? Let us take a look at the crystal ball, and try to predict what the upcoming year – 2013 holds for the TV technology. Will it surge ahead, or will it lag behind – or worse still – everything will be the same?

Here are the five expected top trends for the TV technology and market in the year. A degree of “creative” latitude has been taken in coming up with these predictions, so you will need to keep that in mind before you bet your bottom dollars on this. Anyway, here goes –

TVs will keep getting Smarter

For some reason, the words Smart TVs evoke mixed reactions among TV enthusiasts – with some even going to the extent of suggesting a slow and painful death for Smart TVs as a whole. However, the TV makers seem to think differently, and they seem to be winning! So, expect your TVs to get “smarter” in 2013 – meaning that you will get more and more Smart TV functions added.

3D will stay in Race

The only thing that provokes more extreme reactions than “Smart TV” is 3D TV – although 3D technology in entertainment has been around for decades now. There seems to be some sort of acceptance barrier for 3D TVs – with a lot of influential content creators (e.g., Christopher Nolan) speaking strongly against it – the reason seems to be rooted in premise that 3D TV watching is uncomfortable. But the successful advent of passive 3D TVs and glassless 3D TVs just around the corner, 3D will definitely make a strong comeback in 2013.

OLED TVs - finally here!

OLED TVs are probably one of the most anticipated TV innovations over the last 2-3 years. Strictly speaking, OLED TVs have been around for some time – but they were very small screens – 11 to 15 inches only. The LG OLED TV (named LG 55EM9700) – with its respectable 55 inch screen - will be a definite game changer in the TV world – and the TV is finally out after a number of false starts. LG has started taking pre-orders from January 03, 2013 and shipments are expected to begin by the start of February, 2013.

4K Ultra HD TVs Will Gain Traction

4K Ultra HD TV is another rising star in the TV world, and its rise will continue in 2013 – and it will definitely consolidate its position. Lack of original 4K content and very high prices are certainly impediments to 4K TV acceptance, but both these problems will be slowly and gradually addressed. In this, LG has another potential winner in its kitty – with its newly introduced LG 84LM9600 4K Ultra HDTV setting the pace and standard that the rest of TV industry to follow.

Further Integration of 4 Screens

The TV industry seems gearing for the eventual 4-screen integration strategy – which entails that the four most-used personal devices viz. smartphones, tablets, PCs and TV will be seamlessly synchronized, so that streaming and sharing of data and multimedia content will be enabled across all the devices.

To conclude, TV will definitely retain its supremacy in the entertainment universe, with further value addition in terms of synchronization and integration with other devices of daily use – PCs and phones, for example. I am also eagerly looking forward to CES 2013, when many new, exciting developments in the TV category could be introduced – although the general buzz at this moment is that only old stuff would be reworked and presented in a different packaging. 

In case you have any interesting observations and predictions, please feel free to comment below - I will be very happy to hear and share your views!