I guess I’m a little slow today – well, I’m a little slow every day. Almost immediately after I posted the news about Sony’s new Internet-ready televisions, I caught this press release from Vizio:

VIZIO, America’s TV and Consumer Electronics Company, announced today the unveiling of its "Connected HDTV" Platform, which enhances the HDTV viewing experience by bringing personalized entertainment, information and social networking content into the viewer’s living room. With unprecedented choice and control of web-based and local content from a wide range of popular content providers and services, including on-demand movies and music, news, weather, sports, gaming and social networking services, this platform will be integrated as a key feature into VIZIO televisions shipping to retailers nationwide this Fall 2009 in time for the busy holiday season.

So I guess even if my next television is a Vizio (which I have been very happy with for the last two years), I’ll still get all the same benefits of having Internet connectivity.  It’s good to see all of the major television manufacturers moving towards the same trend.  Is it just a matter of time, though, before we see things like a television with a built in gaming platform as well?

One thing that’s not clear from all the press releases is the details around what browser (if any) will be built into the televisions, and how well they’ll support RIA (rich Internet applications).  I’m sure details will be forthcoming for developers, though.

Filed under: Consumer Web, Entertainment, Hardware