Last year, Mark Phillip unveiled Are You Watching This?!, a tool for mobile phones that alerts sports fans to can't-miss, in-progress games, such as baseball no-hitters. Thousands of users have bought the 99¢application and downloaded it to their Apple (AAPL) iPhones and other handsets. Phillip also wants to create a version of Are You Watching This?! for Web-connected TVs, which he calls the "Holy Grail" for this type of content, but that's been a struggle. "It's a tough platform to build on," says Phillip, a resident of Austin, Tex.
By the end of 2010, Americans will own more than two million Web-connected TVs, which let users access online services such as and Pandora with the same remote control they use to switch channels. Yet while developers have managed to create a wide range of apps for mobile phones, they're daunted by the prospect of building software tools for TVs. There's no easy way to create an app that can run on the wide range of sets, says Forrester Research (FORR) analyst James McQuivey. "Nobody wants to get in the business of developing separate widgets for Samsung (005930:KS), LG (066570:KS), Vizio, and Sony (SNE)," he says.
In addition to all those TVs, there's a growing range of set-top boxes, each with its own software. There's Roku and its Channel Store, which bundles movie-streaming services from Netflix (NFLX) and others with handy tools, like a Facebook photo viewer. Vudu, recently acquired by Wal-Mart (WMT), plans an Apps platform for watching video podcasts such as Diggnation. This summer, the Boxee Box by D-Link (2332:TT) will bid to become the first hardware of its kind to let developers charge for programs through the TV.
To companies such as Internet music provider Pandora, each new outlet for TV applications presents a further opportunity to reach a fresh audience. The Oakland (Calif.)-based company makes its free program available on almost every TV set and box on the market and says its TV business currently adds up to about 500,000 users. "The foundation is there for those numbers to start growing exponentially," says Tim Westergren, Pandora's founder and chief strategy officer.
A trickle of apps for Connected TV
For smaller companies looking to get a foothold, the competing makers of TVs and set-top boxes add an unwelcome layer of complexity. "We're having great difficulty in determining how much effort to put into specific technologies," says Trevor Doerksen, CEO of MoboVivo. His company, which packages TV shows and other video content into apps, gave up on TV apps two years ago when the technology was in its infancy. Instead he opted to build apps for Apple's iPhone, which opened to developers in 2008. Now MoboVivo is again eyeing TV apps, but hasn't decided which gadget to get behind. "Nobody knows how successful it's going to be in two years," Doerksen says.
