It’s Inevitable: Google TV

By  |  Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 6:12 am

The New York Times’ Nick Bilton is reporting that Google, Intel, Sony, and Logitech are collaborating on a new platform for Internet-enabled TV called…Google TV, of course. Bilton doesn’t have a lot of detail, but he says that it’ll be an open-source platform that can run third-party apps; that it will include Google search; that it will run the Android OS and Chrome browser on Intel’s Atom processor; and that Logitech is working on remote controls, including one with a tiny QWERTY keyboard. Google has a prototype box, but the technology could be built into TVs; consumer products may arrive as soon as this summer.

It would have been startling if Google didn’t try to something along these lines, given that TV remains one of the most important screens in the lives of millions of people, and one without any Google presence to date. And nobody’s figured out how to build an Internet TV platform that’s truly a breakout hit–even Apple, which famously keeps insisting that Apple TV is a mere hobby. Roku and Vudu are both pretty nifty, but neither is close to becoming a household name.

If Google’s plans involve an open platform that other companies can build apps for, they sound similar–in broad strokes, at least–to what Yahoo offers in its Connected TV technology. Which is well-done and available on a bunch of TVs from multiple major manufacturers, yet also kind of obscure.

So do teeming masses of real people even want the Internet on their TV? Or is it just that nobody to date has come up with anything that has the right features at the right price? I’m still not sure, so I look forward to more companies giving it a try–and I’m curious to see what Google and friends have in store.

 
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3 Comments For This Post

  1. heulenwolf Says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 8:03 am

    Bring it on. Like the cell phone industry, more choice and competition in the TV industry is better for we consumers. I wonder how they’ll get around the roadblocks Boxee is running into with getting access to good content like Hulu.

  2. Anonymous Says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    Internet streaming is the best thing we have for TV until the cable companies let you get channels a la carte. This sounds an awful lot like the Boxee Box, though.

    I hope they get Adobe and Nvidia on board, to run smooth full HD through GPU-accelerated Flash Player.

  3. Kenneth Lawson Says:
    March 24th, 2010 at 2:46 pm

    Google has become the leader in search, email, and on-line productively tools , and with the many other venues it has tried and for the most part conquered.
    Why shouldn’t streaming tv be any different. Their only real competition is Apple, and Its already admitted its not trying as hard as it could to make the Apple RV a serious product, to interface the on-line world with the living room, Other venues like the Roku, Boxxee Box are important in their own way, however they are very niche orientated, Only a limited number of regular consumers will try them. However,, Building a content delivery system into the tv,along with wi-fi and possibly even 3G capabilities into the tv itself, That open up the field considerably, If when you bought it home hooked it up along with finding your sat or cable box, and off-air stations,it offered to jump on your network, and let you automatically set up Netflix, Amazon, and other paid services, or even transfer accounts to the new tv, for you. Add a good interface designed for the tv, and a wireless keyboard and trackball coming with the tv, and a content deal to get the content in the tv mostly free, and you have a winner…
    Google or Apple could pull this off, At this point it looks like it’ll be Google..
    See my ideas on Tech, media, and

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