Google to Enter Internet TV Market
Google is planning to collaborate with Sony and Intel to create the next generation of Internet-enabled television sets, according to Wednesday media reports.
Google TV, as it is called, is already up and running on prototype set-top boxes, but the technology could eventually be embedded directly into TVs, Blu-Ray players, or satellite television services, or similar devices, according to a March 17 article by Nick Bilton of the New York Times.
"The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing to television, an arena where they have little sway," Bilton wrote. "For Sony, which has struggled to retain a pricing and technological advantage in the competitive TV hardware market, the partnership is an effort to get a leg up on competitors."
"The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications”¦ as it is to change the channel," the New York Times reporter continued, also noting that Google "intends to open its TV platform, which is based on its Android operating system for smartphones, to software developers. The company hopes the move will spur the same outpouring of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones."
Bilton claims that developer toolkits are expected to be shipped to programmers within a few months, and new applications that utilize the software could get completed by summer. Furthermore, Logitech, makers of keyboards, mice, webcams, controllers and other PC and video game system devices, have been approached to create peripherals for Google TV.
The concept of surfing the Internet via a television set is hardly a new one. In September 1996, WebTV, the first TV-based device that allowed access to the World Wide Web, was officially launched, with Sony and Phillips handling hardware development duties.
In April 1997, it was acquired by Microsoft, and by May 1999, it had approximately 800,000 subscribers. A broadband-enabled successor was unveiled in 2004.
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