I like the lines of thinking about smart TVs becoming more popular. I think you still have to have an OS behind the TV with a usable web browser. In that regard Google with Chrome and the Google TV Android based OS is in the lead, although I guess any company can make their own WebKit browser.
M$ was poised to be lead a while back with smart TVs with built-in Media Center Extenders from Acer and HP, but they gave up and pulled out of the market. I think MS had plans with like a Windows 7 Embedded powered TV platform. This was referred as codename Pika. I think they were going to go with the Media Center ecosystem which had their own apps system. They didn't have a ton of apps and MS didn't really take charge, but now with Metro they're coming out and taking charge of this new alternative app system. And now they're putting IE 10 on the Xbox, so that's their new play.
Technology has to be powerful but with some level of simplicity. I think there is still a market for a high-quality powerful PC, and if your Dells and HPs aren't willing to sell a tower PC at retail with a good GPU, good memory, and an SSD, people can look to other companies on the Internet. And also in that regard buying a PC at retail may become unfashionable, or something like what your parents might do since they don't appreciate a good PC. My argument is that as younger people in general become more tech savvy, more people will appreciate actually spending for good PCs. They'll value paying for good gear that does things better. I think also as technologically literate people get older and busy with family life, they may skip the effort to figure out what parts to buy and how to build the latest socket 3000 PC, and just buy a good custom built PC from someplace online.
I'm pleased that I have a dual-core smartphone with Android 4.0, but I find myself tending not to look up stuff on my phone because I get such a better experience with more capability going to the site on my PC. With a browser like Firefox or Chrome I can bookmark something with my phone and then later visit the site on my PC. I think like netbooks, tablets are a lot of hype, and they just aren't as good.
