When will cable have an app for that?

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About The Reali-ty Check Veteran analyst Patti Reali offers insight and commentary on developments in the area of broadband, cable and telecommunications technologies.

The cable industry's annual gathering for its national marketing and technology associations in Denver this week is focused on a few key themes, such as promoting advanced advertising and interactive TV applications development to support interactivity at the TV set.

But in an era of sophisticated applications — à la Apple Inc.'s iPhone — can cable's digital TV platform really expect to compete even in the short term?

Don't hold your breath.

The key to anything even remotely related to advanced applications for the digital TV platform depends on the proliferation of set-top devices enabled with tru2way throughout a cable operator's customer base. The tru2way technology is the new name for what was called the OpenCable Applications Platform, the cable industry's standardized applications development environment that will allow developers to write applications once and cable operators to deploy them across many different types of platforms.

As it was explained to attendees of a session on interactive TV on Monday, tru2way is a true programming environment allowing a host of rich multimedia applications on the TV, enabled through high-end set-top boxes. Unlike the simple, low-end interactive applications that cable is trying to roll out across its base of first-generation and lower-capability set-top boxes (the Motorola DCT2000 set-tops are most often cited), the tru2way applications will more closely mimic the kinds of capabilities we are already accustomed to in current consumer electronics devices. They'll allow things like screen animation, a richer graphics environment for multimedia presentation, gaming, access to social networking and if we're lucky, Internet video sites.

Because tru2way devices have embedded DOCSIS 2.0 modems, broadband connections are possible and with IP capability, these devices can also become the centerpiece of the home with the Digital Living Network Alliance standard for networking with other devices.

The only problem is that it might be three to four years for cable operators to seed the market with a sufficient amount of these devices before wide deployment of the really whiz-bang applications begins across their service footprints.

According to SNL Kagan research, by 2009 there will be an estimated 77.8 million digital set-tops installed in U.S. cable households.

Also, with the transition from analog to digital, many of these devices will be simple digital terminal adapters that cable companies, such as Comcast Corp., will provide their customers to extend the longevity of customers' analog TV sets. Comcast expects to deploy more than 22 million of these DTAs by the time it completes the migration of all its systems over to all-digital networks.

SNL Kagan also estimates that about 10 million digital set-top devices will ship between 2008 and 2009, most of which will be tru2way-capable. In the meantime, cable subscribers will have to content themselves with simpler applications at the TV and wait for the really cool stuff. And who really knows what major technology innovations will spring up in the consumer electronic and Internet worlds?

Here's another interesting twist: the potential for nonuniform user experience depending on the type of set-tops customers have in each room. There is likely to be a mix of high- and low-end devices within the average cable household, so there's also a good chance that the user experience will vary depending on the type of set-top, according to panelists from Comcast and NDS Americas Inc.

As iTV proliferates, there is likely to be a model of "good, better, best" user experiences depending on the set-top and TV, with customers getting the best experience with newer tru2way-enabled devices.

Cable operators say they don't expect any consumer confusion about this "so long as the interface is common and easy to understand."

One audience member asked if we'd ever see a day when there'd be some type of iPhone store capability for cable operators.

James Mumma, senior director of video product development at Comcast, said he didn't see this in the near future. Meanwhile, Steve Tranter, vice president of broadband and interactive at NDS Americas, indicated that though the iPhone is set up as an open development device, he believed there will be some sort of apps store, but in a controlled environment, with proprietary extensions to the tru2way standard being done by each MSO.

The digital cable television platform is its own animal, and even with the establishment of a standardized environment for applications development, they'll need to be tested and certified in a more tightly controlled one than that of mobile devices such as the iPhone.

Even so, we're already seeing competitors such as Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS TV and DIRECTV Group Inc. all launching apps stores right now, so cable certainly needs to be mindful that it doesn't have that much breathing room in its quest to bring its TV platform into the interactive age.