

Google TV is still a flop - kemper
http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/29/google-tv-is-still-a-flop-report-claims/

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tobiassp
Soon enough it will be on all motorola set-top boxes. That part of the
acquisition imho was more important than the mobile device manufacturing
business.

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ChuckMcM
I'm not surprised by the numbers. Google and TV are not a good fit.

Primarily because the media companies hate Google at a really high level and
very viscerally. Now I realize that is a strong statement to hold out as the
primary reason but having seen and heard these guys (and generally they are
always male) talk about Google at NAB I really find it hard to believe they
would do anything to make it easier for Google and go out of their way to be,
if not obstructionist, difficult to work with.

I do think that the 'TV on demand' model will win out over nominal 'live' TV
streaming, but it will succeed because of the Hulus, Rokus, and Amazons of the
world, not Google.

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r00fus
> because of the Hulus, Rokus, and Amazons of the world, not Google

I agree with your sentiment, but it's Interesting that you left out Apple in
this context - that is the biggest company that is both feared and loved by
the media industry. Jobs was the largest single investor in Disney, due to
Pixar. Apple also has incredible power over the music industry, and thus the
fear.

I think Apple is more likely (in the long run) to shift the TV electronics
market than Hulu, Roku, Netflix or Amazon. Regardless, Google is not even
really on the scene compared to the other players.

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politician
And yet, I love my Sony Google TV.

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Legion
Nobody wanted a set-top box that just plays what all the other set-top boxes
already offer.

And for the TVs with it built in, that's nice and all, but is old hat at this
point. Plenty of manufacturers like Vizio have their own built-in software for
accessing the same content providers.

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ajross
I think you have this backwards. What do people want then? I mean, my TiVo is
getting old and it's time to look for a replacement. I'm looking around the
field and as you point out, they're all pretty much the same. I want OTA TV
capture and a reasonable interface to streaming content (currently using
Netflix, but I'd be happy to jump ship).

It's a commodity market. No one cares about the UI[1], they want the content.
So while I certainly agree that Google isn't going to get a huge win on this,
they will certainly be a player.

[1] Though it has to not suck. I'd be very suspicious of a streaming app
packaged with my TV. Google has a rather better track record of producing
solid consumer software than, ahem, Vizio.

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herval
IMHO, the UI will play a huge role in whichever solution comes out and
dominates the market. TVs are everywhere, yet most users find them hard to
deal with (even switching inputs is "hard", let alone doing stuff such as
recording content)...

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herval
To some extent, AppleTV is ALSO still a flop...

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VikingCoder
Tint control is still a flop. I don't know anyone who threw away their old TV
to buy a TV with tint control.

Accessing the internet on your TV isn't a "killer feature." It's a "nice to
have."

