iPads and other tablets won’t kill off the laptop, but rather small-screen TVs, Vizio CTO Matt McRae told me during an interview at this week’s Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. “Instead of buying a 19 inch TV or a 24 inch TV, (people) may be more likely to buy a tablet,” he said.
McRae was at I/O to promote the company’s new Google TV set-top box, and he told me a bit about that device as well. Check out my interview with him below:
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Vizio is still primarily known as a TV set manufacturer, but the company also started selling Android tablets last summer, and recently added laptop and desktop PCs to its inventory. And this week, it announced the Co-Star, a Google TV set-top box that will be available for pre-orders for $ 99 next month.
McRae told me that he ultimately sees all of these screens – TVs, PCs, tablets and smart TV devices – working together to deliver content to consumers. Asked about the market share of Google TV, he provided a rather diplomatic answer, pointing towards a growing market share for smart TVs in general. “The penetration for smart TVs is skyrocketing,” he told me.
Check out my e-book Cut the cord: All you need to know to drop cable to read how media blogger Jim Romenesko replaced all of his TVs – even the big ones – with an iPad.
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