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DPic [PersonRank 10]

Thursday, March 18, 2010
14 years ago10,025 views

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/03/18/1150247/I-Want-My-GTV

"The NY Times reports that Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of TVs and set-top boxes. The three companies have tapped Logitech for peripheral devices, including a remote with a tiny keyboard. Based on Google's Android operating system, the TV technology runs on Intel's Atom chips. Google is expected to deliver a toolkit to outside programmers within the next couple of months, and products based on the software could appear as soon as this summer."

Above 1 comments were made in the forum before this was blogged,

MZaza [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Also, http://blogoscoped.com/forum/168669.html

Andy Wong [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

It is so natural that Google steps into this market.

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

I agree with Andy, this market is a natural for Google.

And yet, Apple already has a great device (their "Apple TV") with a great interface, which comes with a nifty remote or can be controlled from your phone, works really nicely for watching YouTube on your TV, and is much less expensive than, say, an Apple Mac Mini. But Apple TV hasn't taken the world by storm. It has sold in very modest numbers.

Google's offering would need to somehow be substantially better to succeed in this market.

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

[put at-character here]Roger Browne's "Google's offering would need to somehow be substantially better to succeed in this market."

Quite correct, and worth noting is that'd be Google's AND Intel's AND SONY's cooperative offering (Intel here is presumably not merely the chip-maker, but competitor to OLPC initiative with its own educational terminals and methods). It's a tall order, that the three partners be pulling in the same direction, and not merely off the drawing board. Apple, which refers to Apple TV as something of a "hobby project" and does not seem to promote it much, at least has the option of encasing it in a Mini proper (or its offspring) should sales of ATV continue to dip. What market-exit option has the yet-unborn Googintelsonyteevee product?

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Apple doesn't do genuine "hobby projects", so this is just a PR term to avoid explaining their strategic reasons for keeping a marginal product going. Apple TV must be a placeholder for something bigger in the future.

A few years ago, Apple probably thought that the Apple TV would generate a huge profit through movie rentals. My speculation is that, if the App store for the iPad is profitable, Apple will introduce an App store for TV apps, and send the Apple TV product line mainstream.

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

This particular "hobby project" may have been exception to the rule and/or Apple's attempt at preemptive damage control for all we know. But I see what you're implying, that Apple may be lying in wait for emergence of private narrowcast TV-channels, which such Apple TV apps would make possible. In effect giving any party which can bear the production costs an ability to distribute/ serve TV content outside now-mainstream broadcast and cable-delivery routes. In either static-, dynamic-, or hybrid interactive formats as well. One caveat though: once the novelty wears out, where are we supposed to find time to consume all that paid-for new content, esp. when traditional "free" channels run in parallell?

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

OK, here's the source of the Apple quote. It was by Tim Cook, Chief Operating Officer of Apple. He said "Apple TV is still a hobby". Not "just a hobby", but "still a hobby".

That sounds to me like a clear indication that grander plans lie ahead. He went on to deny that Apple would produce any kind of television set, but gave a further hint that something more is ahead:

"The reality is that Apple TV is in a market that is very small today….But we’re going to continue to invest in it because our gut tells us there’s something there"

http://www.worldtvpc.com/blog/apple-tv-small-treated-hobby/

DPic [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

I just read an article that scared me a little into thinking the On2 acquisition for VP8 was merely for IPTV but then i remembered that Google specifically mentioned web standards and now i'm back to impatiently waiting for them to liberate the codec

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/69435.html

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