Looks like Google TV will finally get its premiere. The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Android-based TV UI will debut at the search giant’s I/O Developer conference in May. Google has apparently lined up hardware partners, including Sony, Intel and Logitech (with Samsung mulling a move too). Alongside Google’s Fiber Communities broadband project, it is beginning to put together the pieces to make a move into the video to the home market in much the way it’s tackled mobile.
According to The Wall Street Journal:
The decision to address developers suggests that the Internet giant may be hoping to kick-start a race to build applications for its TV platform, much in the same way that Google, Apple Inc. and others have courted developers for smartphones. The app-store approach has already begun to gain traction among some players in the TV market, too, aided by the advent of TVs, Blu-ray players and other hardware with Internet connections.
But before developers invest in TV apps from Google, they’ll want to see significant adoption of the software among hardware makers. Intel, the dominant player in chips for PCs, has been trying for years to play a bigger role in set-top boxes, with its efforts focusing lately around a chip called Atom that is used in low-end laptop PCs called netbooks.
Connected Planet’s take,
Dan O’Shea:
Can you hear the giant’s footsteps getting closer? The long-rumored Google TV foray appears imminent, and with its fiber plans, Google is making itself at home on every street conrer of the broadband neighborhood currently ruled by telcos and cable TV companies. Where Google, much like Apple, may have a distinct advantage on both those parties is in its ability to enable a thriving third-party application development and merchandising environment.
The app store concept may be nothing new to the advanced TV realm, but no single company has risen above the fray to become identified with it in the minds of consumers the way Apple has ruled the roost in mobile. Also, the app store concept’s success has yet to fully translate from mobile to residential TV. Google’s involvement may grease the wheels of the whole movement.
That’s our take on this. Let us know what you think in the comments section below: