WHY CAN’T NEW TV SETS INCLUDE WIFI?

TV set manufacturers may be overlooking a potentially lucrative market by focusing on developing 3D and other big-screen home-theater models and failing to produce smaller, low-cost sets that can connect to home computers via wi-fi without the relatively complicated procedure of hooking them up to settop boxes, according to research by Port Washington, NY-based The NPD Group. In its Connected TV Owner Study, the NPD researchers concluded that “manufacturers are underselling the Internet features” of sets that connect to the Internet by focusing on their ability to access content from video sites like Netflix and Hulu Plus. “NPD research indicates that manufacturers have an opportunity not only to provide more content choices, but inventive ways to navigate them,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at The NPD Group. Manufacturers, he said, should provide “the key” for doing so “by integrating wi-fi.”