The Battle for the Living Room Is Over — The War for the Consumer Is On

[Commentary] The ultimate goal for consumer electronics companies 10 years ago? Control the consumer living room experience. That way, they could control consumer identities, consumer experiences, consumer credit cards and commerce — business model nirvana as consumers in markets such as the United States were upgrading from clunky cathode-ray televisions to the new, slim, high-definition TVs. Key players in this battle? Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Nintendo and Microsoft.

Fast forward to today: The battle for the living room is already over, and the overall war for the consumer is on. Key players in this big war? Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung and LG. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp and Nintendo? By and large on the outside looking in, wondering how the vision for living room dominance blew up. The single biggest key to everything? Control the UI on the connected screens. Companies who control the UI will then dictate how software is accessed, and which software. Making a compelling, fun, friendly UI is considered to be a very special sauce — rarely made and hard to do.

[McNealy is founder of consulting firm Digital World Research]