The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has formed a new working group called the Device, Apps and Content working group (DAC) that will serve as a form of open air forum for members interested in working together and solving joint issues.
The move is a first by the organization in this area, it has seen a tremendous upsurge in interest in how apps are developed, distributed, collected and viewed among its member companies. To be clear this will not be a standards setting body, although the CEA does have a technology and standards groups.
The development of the DAC is a natural outgrowth of what is happening in the industry exemplified by the recent Consumer Electronics Show last month in Las Vegas where the more than 20,000 new product introductions were designed to unite CE and content.
The CEA sees this convergence, where consumer electronics devices are increasingly moving from stand alone products to ones that fill multiple roles including receiving and displaying digital technology as a growing opportunity for its members.
Jason Oxman, CEA’s senior vice president, industry affairs said. “Our aim is to transform content convergence so that consumers have better access to what they want directly from their electronic devices.”
There is no limit to the amount of members that are permitted in a workgroup and a number of prominent companies are already signing up, sowing the broad appeal this approach has to its membership.
Among those involved are Fox, IBM, Netflix, Tivo, Sharp, Kenwood, Pandora and Nintendo. by Bryan Burns, ESPN’s vice president of strategic business planning, will chair the DAC and its focus will be toward companies an interest in content distribution and app development.
