QQ’s ipTV: a road to virtual China

ChinaTechNews reports that Tencent has partnered with Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL to develop an Internet-enabled,
interactive TV with QQ-branded applications such as IM and games. It’s
called iTQQ. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is moving ahead relatively quickly in Japan, South Korea, and especially in Hong Kong. It is already available to some Chinese urban residents via pilots such as the one that brought IPTV into the tiny one room apartment of a migrant worker family I interviewed in Shenzhen in 2006.  No-one in the family had ever been online, nor did they have much of a sense of what that even meant (aside from a vague idea that their son would have to learn about it to get a job in the future). Nevertheless, they were learning to navigate an interactive screen via the familiar remote control and a new set-top box that had been installed in their apartment by their landlord, for which they were paying a monthly fee.  It may be that for many ordinary urban Chinese, virtual China will be experienced in the coming decade not through the PC at home, work, or Internet cafe, not even through the phone–but through the ubiquitous television, so beloved by most Chinese families.

IPTVWorld.net has photos of the recent iTQQ demo at TCL’s Industrial Research Institute in Shenzhen:

Intel’s Mobile in China blog posts details:
this
new iTQQ TV not only can play TV programs, but also can provide
interactive services for end users such as online game, photo album,
e-cards and instant messagers…aged people can now inquire the working status
of their children through the device even with no former internet
experiences. Furthermore, remote controller can be used to communicate
with the children to know whether and when they will come home for
dinner. Besides, with such an innovative TV set at hand with QQ IM
functions, the end users may share their favorite TV program with
friends instantly…Unlike traditional TV users need TV controller and
set-top-box controller at the same time to switch between two screen,
iTQQ TV users have seamless entertaining experiences with both TV
program and internet value-add service . very impressed !