The rise of Smart TVs has hit a tipping point, with retailer John Lewis claiming that all the TVs it sells next year will be Smart enabled.
Despite the retailer currently selling everything from £100 16-inch TVs up to the latest £35,000 4K models, John Lewis has claimed that within a matter of months, every TV that it stocks will offer Smart connectivity and interface options as standard.
With Smart TV functions still seen as something of a high-end luxury, if accurate, the wholehearted move to Smart enabled systems would highlight the dramatically changing market trends and consumer expectations.
“Smart is the new expectation consumers have when buying a TV,” Jonathan Marsh, a Head Technology Buyer at John Lewis said when speaking exclusively with TrustedReviews. He added: “I don’t think John Lewis will be selling anything other than Smart TVs next year.
Speaking on how the market is continuing to evolve, Marsh stated: “The awareness of Smart TV is much higher now than it’s ever been.” Putting a more precise timeframe on the company’s Smart TV plans he added: “From April time onwards, we won’t be selling anything other than Smart TVs.”
Although Smart functionality has now replaced 3D as the latest must-have TV feature for many consumers, the platforms did not get off to the smoothest of starts, with early Smart TVs plagued with issues.
“The actual Smart TV interfaces are getting better,” Marsh said addressing this. “In truth, when we first launched Smart TVs two years ago it wasn’t intuitive enough and it needed demonstrating. Customers didn’t always have a great experience because either their broadband wasn’t fast enough, or the processing power of their TV wasn’t good enough.”
He added: “What we are seeing now is those little niggles and the little traits customers didn’t like being addressed. The TVs now are much more powerful so you get a better Smart experience and they are much more intuitive.”
Highlighting one major cause of the wholehearted move into Smart TVs he stated: “Because of the rise of smartphones, customers are becoming a lot more familiar with how they interact with applications and this is being rolled over to TVs.”
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