Microsoft’s Pessner Shares SmartGlass Service Details (Exclusive)

June 26, 2012 · Posted in 2nd Screen Exclusive

By Lyndsey Schaefer

Microsoft recently announced its SmartGlass™ service, which connects the Xbox experience to tablets and smartphones in an intelligent way. SmartGlass™ communicates with the Xbox 360, allows users to send media between devices and brings supplemental information to tablets and smartphones.

Ron Pessner, Partner, Group Program Manager, Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft, says that the goal of SmartGlass™ is to allow for a much richer entertainment experience.

Users will be able to play media on multiple devices simultaneously, or move content they were viewing on a tablet over to a television screen, while the mobile device starts serving out relevant information about the movie or TV show. SmartGlass™ can also be used for gaming.

“SmartGlass™ in general turns your phone or tablet into a second screen with supplemental information to deliver a better entertainment experience,” Pessner says.

The SmartGlass™ announcement was buoyed by the announcement of Microsoft’s newly announced tablet, Surface.

“We saw a bunch of opportunities for a second screen. There’s a big consumer demand, and as devices become more capable, consumers are looking to consume entertainment on them,” Pessner says.

Microsoft also confirmed that its Internet Explorer software is coming to the Xbox 360. SmartGlass will enable users to browse the Internet on their television screens using their smartphones to interact with Web sites. Pessner also says that SmartGlass will not only be a free application on Microsoft, but it will also be available on IOS and Android devices.

“SmartGlass is a single app that will tune to what’s happening on the Xbox, so it really simplifies things for the user. They just have to launch this app on the device, and the app will do the work, making sure the user’s activities are reflected,” Pessner explains. “I think the part that resonated was that consumers are looking for technology that makes the entertainment experience more engaging and simpler. They have these smart devices, but don’t know how to unleash their capabilities.”

One such capability is using SmartGlass to control the television, as it is equipped with an intelligent screen to scroll through libraries, allowing for content discovery. On the gaming side, new Microsoft role-playing games will allow consumers to see interactive maps, character dossiers and much more supplemental information. Pessner is also excited about the launch of the SmartGlass SDK, which will bring client and web technologies together in a way that makes it possible for builders to leverage experiences.

“The creators are looking to engage customers across different screens; we wanted to create an easy way for them to do that,” Pessner says.

Pessner will give an overview of SmartGlass and capabilities of the platform and a product demonstration at tomorrow’s 2^nd Screen Summit in NYC. For more details, go to: http://www.2ndscreensummit.com/nyc/ or http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/smartglass.

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