The future of the main screen has nothing to do with the app

"Do you see this?" ”

"This" can be anything: songs, video clips, great galleries. No matter what it is, if this innocuous question requires me to run to the app Store for 10 minutes to sift through the 50 results of the same name, and then wait for the download, open the app to find the content, then the media consumption and discovery of the promotion work can be said to be a complete failure.

Can you say that Web browsers can't end this nightmare?

Yes, but the web is not personalized, and it feels too much. In addition to browsing and discovering new content on favorite sites, the web doesn't feel any control. This is the main point of all these new devices from 50-inch TVs to 4.8-inch smartphones: personalized experience. But without a good master screen, everything is in vain.

The main screen gives a feeling of mixed emotions. It has a semi customizable experience with a wired network and then a more modern OTT box, such as Roku. But the problem with both is that they focus more on "apps" than on content. When I opened the Apple TV main screen, it was almost a very dense app, but it was almost impossible to provide me with any viewing clues. Of course, there is also a lack of interface on any of my previous viewing mode recommendations.

Thanks to Homer, this iOS app gives us a visual impression of the main screen's app profile (see chart below). From the sampling point of view, a total of 10,000 apps only 700 appear on the main screen. The following figure is the distribution of the hottest 3,000 apps in the App Store. The long tail effect is so obvious that a handful of apps occupy most of the main screen, leaving almost no chance of appearing. That means we're missing a lot of content. But what if the operating system knows what you're consuming but the app itself doesn't need to download? Imagine that the content coming from everywhere is directly on your screen, so you're focusing on what you really care about, not the app name.

We have at least made some progress in the right direction: The push notification itself can be easily integrated into the operating system, abstracted from the app that generated the notifications. But that's still what happens when you make a choice, load, and then agree to push from 3,000 apps. If apps can be as smart as circa or Nuzzel, content can be pushed based on what is popular, what friends are looking at, or breaking news. But there is still a long way to go to inform consumption. If I receive a new content notification, and the content is just video, it should be easy to push to my TV, the process should not need to load the app and find the ridiculous icon to guide the TV. If the TV has been turned on, is it just a direct display of the viewing option?

The future main screen needs to be content-driven, not the app icon that hides the content behind it. It's like the desktop I had 20 years ago-it was full of CDs and I wanted to hear what I needed to find. Now that the open web has some content-led features, it is time to apply it to the device. What should be the Web, the lock screen, and the technology that allows us to get the relevant content anywhere? If Nest can detect my control of indoor temperature, then we can do the same for the media-and for every device in our hands.

Let's move forward together.