[opendtv] News: Calling on Sony and Others, Google Makes a TV Move
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 07:43:58 -0400
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/technology/21google.html?th&emc=th
Calling on Sony and Others, Google Makes a TV Move
By BRAD STONE
Published: May 20, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO - Google recruited a solid lineup of high-tech
companies on Thursday to help it introduce Google TV, a new service
that merges the predictable world of television programming with the
more chaotic expanse of the Web.
Now it has to persuade the TV audience to turn the living room
television into the newest on-ramp to the Internet.
Google TV, which the company introduced at its annual developer
conference here, lets people visit any Web site from their
televisions and easily search for programs and Web video without
scrolling through unwieldy on-screen TV directories.
The service will be built into high-definition TVs and Blu-ray
players made by Sony and a set-top box made by Logitech, which also
makes PC peripherals like keyboards. It is powered by Google's
Android software, originally developed for smartphones. The devices
will go on sale in the fall.
The effort is likely to face formidable challenges. Google must
persuade television manufacturers other than Sony to use its
software, and retailers other than the electronics chain Best Buy to
sell the devices. And consumers have demonstrated little interest, so
far, in connecting to the Web through their TVs.
What they have shown is price sensitivity, and the high-powered Intel
Atom chips that will be at the heart of devices running Google TV are
likely to add to their cost. Intel has spent billions of dollars
developing those chips over the last few years in a high-stakes push
to crack the market for consumer electronics.
The companies declined to discuss prices.
Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, the third-largest maker of
flat-panel televisions in the United States market, appeared on
Google's stage to say Sony would build Google's software into a
high-definition television called the Sony Internet TV, as well as a
Blu-ray player.
He also said Sony was likely to gradually adopt Google's software,
which he cited as more robust and comprehensive than the company's
own Bravia Internet service, for its other Internet-connected TVs.
Mr. Stringer was joined on the stage by the chief executives of Best
Buy, Adobe, Intel, Dish Networks and Logitech, where they were
interviewed about their plans by Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief
executive.
Mr. Schmidt said that people had been talking about bringing the Web
to the TV for two decades. "It's much harder to marry a 50-year-old
technology and a brand-new technology than those of us from the
brand-new technology industry thought," he said.
Devices running Google TV will also be able to run applications
written for Android phones and will feature Google's Chrome Web
browser.
Logitech's set-top box will allow people to receive Google TV without
having to buy a new television set. The company said it was also
working on keyboard-equipped remote controls and peripherals to allow
people to surf the Web from the couch
Many companies have already tried to bridge the gap between the
television and the Web. TiVo, Boxee, Roku and Vudu, now a division of
Wal-Mart, all make devices that offer a variety of Internet video on
the television. All have struggled to gain broad adoption, in part
because most consumers do not want to hook another set-top box to
their TVs.
Roku has sold more than 500,000 set-top boxes, but its sales took off
only when the price sank below $100, said Anthony Wood, the company's
chief executive. Noting the premium prices that devices running
Google TV would probably sell for, Mr. Wood said, "I don't think it's
a threat as it is today, but certainly over time Google is going to
get market share."
Television manufacturers already sell so-called connected TVs with
limited Internet ability, which in some cases is provided by a Google
rival, Yahoo. Such models are likely to make up a quarter of all
televisions sold this year, according to analysts. But many consumers
do not even know they are buying that feature and usually make their
shopping decisions based on the size and appearance of the set.
If Google's effort is successful, it could create problems for
traditional cable companies, as more people could look to the wealth
of content on the Internet and bypass their cable provider's
profitable video-on-demand offerings.
"The video-on-demand experience has always been antiquated at best,"
said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG, a financial
services firm. Google TV and similar efforts "put pressure squarely
on cable operators and anyone in the business of distributing video
content to improve their user experience."
Google did not talk about its advertising strategy for Google TV, but
it could use its formidable data-collection abilities to aim new
types of ads at television-watching consumers. The company said users
would have control over what information was shared with advertisers.
One advantage Google believes it has in courting other television
manufacturers is the success of its Android platform for mobile
phones - and the fact that TV makers like LG Electronics and Samsung
already sell phones running Android. On Thursday, Google said that
100,000 new Android phones were activated every day, up from 60,000
in April - second in the industry only to phones from Research In
Motion.
Google executives promoted the notion that Google seemed to have
already surpassed its rival Apple in this respect, although Apple
still has a far larger base of devices running the iPhone operating
system. It recently reported that it had shipped 85 million iPhones
and iPod Touches, and more than a million iPad tablet computers.
Apple could invest more in the TV business soon. It sells an Apple TV
set-top box, which it deems a hobby and which most analysts view as a
lackluster product. It would now make sense for Apple to update that
product, adding a Blu-ray player, for example. Or Apple could offer
its iTunes service to other set-top box and TV makers, or manufacture
its own flat-panel television that links to iTunes.
"Google TV is more than anything finally going to create some energy
over at Apple to make a television, or at least a version of the iPad
that docks with a TV," said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester
Research.
In an interview, Vic Gundotra, vice president for engineering at
Google, used the momentum of Android, a free open-source platform
with few rules governing its use, to draw a sharp distinction with
the control Apple exerts over devices running the iPhone operating
system.
"If you believe that the only way to get a good smartphone is to bet
on one man, one device, one carrier and one choice, that is a
different model than we believe in," Mr. Gundotra said. "We believe
innovation doesn't come from one man; it comes from all of us."
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