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>what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether. Narrowband IoT is the target market for that. T-Mobile has a plan
by Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
>what happens if iot LTE connections get cheap enough that the choice is removed altogether.
Narrowband IoT is the target market for that. T-Mobile has a plan where a certified module costs $5 (There is a min order to get that price, but for a large vendor that's not going to be an issue) then $6 p/year as long as you can keep below 12MB per year. But you can keep bw down by shipping the fingerprinting software with the TV and only sampling a small section of the screen (Other TV Vendors have done done this in the past too) and create the matching fingerprints in your server farm (So no need to send a full screenshot to fingerprint the show.
The question is then would $25 added to the BOM cost per device be worth it to the manufacturer (Cost of the module plus 3 years of NB-IoT coverage). Though you could reduce that by getting a custom deal with the carrier where you only pay for data if you actually activate it, then only activate the module if the TV has been in use for X hours without phoning home using the customers own connection.
From a cost perceptive I think we are pretty much already there.
- Scoundreller 7y agoI think we’re safe from that because enough people put their smartTVs on the network anyway. We’ll lose some precision in the data because it’s biased against grandma, but good enough to sell the reports. It may be $25/unit, but if 9/10 put their device on the network anyway, that’s $250/useful outcome.
- Crosseye_Jack 7y agoBut that $25 is if every module is activated. If the Customer connects the TV to their own network anyway then you just cancel (if even activated anyway) the data plan for that TV. My argument is more that from a cost point of view we are pretty much at the point it could be done, Not that I think it will happen any time soon (Reg's about data collection around the world are beginning to tighten up, personally I think getting the lawyers to draft up the paper work for an always connected TV for data collection alone is gonna be more the sticking point then the cost of the equipment/data to do so).
- Scoundreller 7y agoSounds like the trick will be to convince my TV that I’m in EU.
- Crosseye_Jack 7y agoThe TV would know where you are by knowing what phone masts are in your area. But if you are in the US then ain't California pushing for tighter data collection regs? But I get what your trying to say. Time to spin up a Software Defined Radio and start faking cell towers so your TV thinks it's in the EU :-P
- Scoundreller 7y agoHopefully we can just tap into the serial interface.
- Crosseye_Jack 7y agoA lot of them has started even locking down the serial interface. Hell even the boot logo on most LG TV's these days are signed. EDIT: One thing that "might" work is a repair remote / repair menu. On the LG TV's in my house the repair menus allow you to change things like what HDMI mux the TV is expecting (I can't recall if the WiFi Module was included in such menus, but if it is you could change it to something its isn't and hopefully break connectivity. I'll have to dig out my repair remote and play around in the menus again).
- Scoundreller 7y agoThere’s so many inputs, I’m sure there’s piles of vulnerabilities. IR interface buffer overflows anyone?
- killface 7y agoi've never been so happy to not have a smart tv...
- scarface74 7y agoWe’ll lose some precision in the data because it’s biased against grandma, That will single handedly kill ratings for CBS.
- jdsully 7y ago$25 is hugely expensive. This is an industry that removes $0.02 bypass capacitors by trial and error to save a few pennies.
- tjoff 7y agoIt is also the same industry that grossly overvalues ads. In their mind $25 is a steal.
- Crosseye_Jack 7y agoNormally I would agree (The race to the bottom is huge) but in a market where the cheapest Samsung 32" TV in the UK on Amazon is £183 (~$240), The brand carries some weight for "quality", the data the module would generate can be sold on to generate income and you would be in a fine position to sign a custom deal with the carrier where you only pay for data if the customer didn't connect the device to their own connection the extra module itself is gonna cost $5. The extra $20 is only in data charges if they chose to exploit it. Samsung could throw in the cheapest caps they could find from Shenzhen Markets, but they usually come with a decent brand (at least in the TV's I've taken apart in the past couple of years). Sneaking in the extra cost of the modulke to the customer (if its as low as $5) will be pretty easy as long as the rev generated from the data collection is more than the data charges they are billed for (omitting the cost of dev'ing the FP'ing software and generating the FP's in your server farm). EDIT: The 3 years of service was just a random number plucked out of the air. A length of time that could be used to study to see if the costs would be worth it (and a number I picked from experience with updates / new features no longer being pushed to smart TV's). If they found its not worth it, they could drop the service 12 months in and not have to pay for the 2 years left on the experiment (thus reducing the cost again). The manufacturers have the numbers (number of units sold vs the number of units phoning home) to know if it would be a worthwhile endeavour. Just making the point that we are pretty much at the point where the costs of such connectivity is not a huge sum in the grand scheme of things.
- lvh 7y agoTrue, but bypass capacitors don't produce ad revenue.
- joezydeco 7y agoIf you're getting $26 from the ad agencies, then it's $-1 on your BOM. Done deal.
- jp555 7y agoBut is individual data worth that much? I mean isn’t “my” Facebook data is worth less than $0.20US/year?
- rhizome 7y agoIt's only "worth" that little because of FB's pricing, which also includes their signaling on how worthless they want people to think their data is, overall.
- jononor 7y agoFacebook had 20 USD per active user revenue in 2018. So it is somehow worth more than that.
- rhizome 7y agoI bet they count API hits (FB app checking in but not being used) in that. If it was based per interacting user I bet it's much higher.
- lilyball 7y agoUser revenue isn’t the same thing as what the user data is worth. What would their revenue be if they did nothing more than IP geolocation ads without any other user data?
- lonelappde 7y agoAdvertisers pay Facebook a total of $100/yr/user in USA.
- joezydeco 7y agoSo that wifi chipset is worth $-275, given a three year lifespan. And that’s why you have 50” LCDs selling for $300 in the USA.
- lonelappde 7y ago$6/yr is early adopter price. With a little competition and multiple spy devices per home, that will drop to bulk rates of $1/yr/device or less.
- toss1 7y agoAdditional requirement for modern media room: Faraday Cage
- Crosseye_Jack 7y agoEldest Child: "DAD!!!! Why doesn't the WiFi work in the media room!!!!" Thinking about it, That is an added bonus... ;-)