Trendslate recently spoke with David McIntosh, CEO of Redux. David and I met when I worked at Myspace amidst the early stages of planning the partnership between Redux and Myspace. After he came across my recent post on curation, we reconnected and discussed platforms, consumption and what the future may hold. In addition to the current partnership with Myspace, Redux recently partnered with Samsung. The Samsung partnership enables a “Lean Back” content consumption experience exemplified by the video below:

Redux’s Vision for the Future
The vision for Redux is to become the next generation Comcast. Instead of providing consumers with limited choices and an inability to find compelling content, Redux would enable a discovery layer on top of content that could be consumed via numerous mediums and platforms. Discovery would take the form of the social graph and recommendations, not in the form of search. Additionally, content would be expanded to include short form content in channels curated by Redux users along with editorial from within Redux.

Lean Back vs. Lean Forward
With content consumption on televisions, consumers are typically on their couch in a relaxed state (lean back) vs. when people consume content on a laptop (lean forward) state. The hybrid and ever growing segment is mobile where you could be on your phone, tablet, or eventually LED paper device. Mobile is an area that Redux is watching closely especially as laptop and desktop sales decline and tablet sales increase.

Niche vs. Mainstream
Redux relies heavily on its users for the curation of the content, however there needs to be a balance between the community and the repurposing of the content created. People with the Samsung televisions with Redux, are more likely to consume content that is more mainstream vs. content that may have more of a niche focus. Both serve respective purposes and audiences differently.

Lead With Your API
An API is critical to Redux’s platform and clearly the company is following the Lead With Your API approach. This component enables features to be built within Redux and by companies partnering with the company such as Myspace, Samsung, Boxee, and others to be named shortly.

Positioned for Success
Questions remain as to which direction curation and consumption will go, however Redux is well positioned. Will consumers prefer the “lean back” or “lean forward” approach? Personally, I prefer the ability to consume content from my couch on a large TV with the power to choose the content rather than networks making that decision.
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Tags   api  comcast  curation  myspace  platform  redux  samsung