Google TV
“TV meets web. Web meets TV” is Google’s latest slogan accompanying their much anticipated plans to launch their new product, Google TV.
Google TV will be available to TV’s via a box which hooks up to your existing cable or satellite box. The hardware will work through both a keyboard and a mouse as well as through Android phones.
The latest development by Google has come from the recent realisation that despite an increase in both computer and mobile phone use, TV is the real massive medium, having more than 4 Billion user’s world wide (this is double the amount of users that currently utilise mobiles and computers). Over 70 billion dollars is spent on television in the U.S alone per year, making it a very profitable market for Google to become involved with.
The aim of Google TV is to bring the smarts of the internet to the luxury of home entertainment systems. Vincent Dureau of Google says it began with “a vision of a walled garden of TV-optimized web services” and is now so much more. With the ‘marriage of the internet and television’ TV’s are going to be revolutionised, becoming a web browser, photo slideshow viewer, gaming console, music player and so much more.
Google TV focuses on features that allow users to spend less time finding what they want to watch and more time actually watching it. They aim to personalise TV content, and allow users to enjoying the luxury of a smarter and more interesting TV.
Another exciting aspect of Google TV is its appeal to Android users. Since Google TV is built on Android (currently 2.1) and runs Google Chrome for the browser, Android apps will work on the TV. The company explains that there will be two app frameworks;
1. Web apps and
2. Android apps.
YouTube will also be releasing its new product in conjunction with Google TV, YouTube Leanback, which is an optimised way to use YouTube on a home entertainment system.
Google has partnered with three major device makers, Sony, Logitech and Intel, ensuring their product will be easily accessed by the public. They have further partnered with Dish Network, and they formed a retail partnership with Best Buy.
Google TV is set to launch in 2010, and a platform will be launched for developers in 2011.
To find out more information on Google TV, watch this video as seen on Google’s official website.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
