TV Becoming Next Competitive Arena for Apple and Google

For some time, Apple has viewed its Apple TV product as a ‘hobby.’ While the device has been updated occasionally, the streaming video gadget has not been seen as a weapon in Cupertino’s battle with Google for media supremacy. However, that may change as word leaks that Google, Intel and Sony have teamed-up for GoogleTV.

A GoogleTV prototype already exists, according to the New York Times. The device employs Google’s Android operating system, Google’s Chrome Web browser and Intel’s Atom processor. The project has been underway for several months and plans to get a toolkit to developer over the next two months, with products introduced possibly this summer. Google has begun limiting testing of its set-top box with Dish Network, according to the NYT.

Logitech has been added to the project for their knowledge of peripheral devices such as remotes and keyboards, the report adds.

Although others have tried to refine Apple TV, such as Boxee TV,

“Google wants to be everywhere the Internet is so they can put ads there,” the newspaper quotes a person with knowledge of the project. According to the report, Google plans software allowing TV viewers to do Internet searches, watch YouTube videos or check out Hulu content. Also part of the plan: games or other Web apps could be downloaded and run on the GoogleTV device.

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[via New York Times and Computerworld]

8 comments »

About the author

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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TRRosen
I think we need to stop calling them set-top boxes since there aren’t any TVs left you can set something on top of. How about TV-extenders as they extend a TVs functionality.
Dustin
Maybe this will prompt Apple to turn more attention to AppleTV and make it more than a hobby.
Emile
If Apple wants to get in the game, they need to improve their movie catalog and especially improve the download access for rentals. It’s currently quicker to produce a remake of the movie than to download it from iTunes to AppleTV.
Freddie
Let the battle for the Living Room begin!
kermit
a. who want a product from a company that owns the whole chain, from hardware to software to content?
b. who want a product from a company that combines violating your privacy with advertising?
it’s like choosing between the pest and the cholera.
Roy
How does a company as big as apple with record earnings every quarter leave the apple tv to be mediocre? Its not as if they don’t have the resources to develop it into something great. It seems to me they just need to put a solid team together and get cracking, with the quality of displays used for HDTVs its a great opportunity to show off other content than what the cable company provides. Competition just makes things better for the consumer, android on the tv is going to do great things for pushing the apple tv to be better, and I’m ready for it to be better.
itskaye
@Roy: Well, I just think that Apple TV isn’t as ‘essential’ in their product line as the iMac and the iPhone. Its not their main ammunition but this development might cause a change and they could develop Apple TV into something grander. I’m excited for the possibilities!
The 160 GB capacity is just too small. It should be at least 500 GB minimum, I think. There are music videos, movies, TV shows. Countless of media stuff to be put in there and there’s no sufficient space.
Betamax
Apple TV has been lukewarm so far…. because it has not yet been a priority for Apple, obviously the iPhone ecosystem (includes the iPad, iPods, iTunes) has been the top priority for the company, especially when these iProducts HAVE had to defend themselves from the stampede of 50 billion wanna-be competitors (e.g. Chinese fakes, Chinese knock-offs, Android copycat devices, ugly WinMobile devices, and BarackBerries, actually the BarackBerry is the only legitimate competitor that is NOT an Apple wanna-be copycat product, since the BarackBerries were already an established smartphone brand before the iPhone was ever announced. So I give BarackBerries a bit of legitimacy and respect).
Once the Smartphone turf war settles down in the coming year, especially with the incoming DEATH AND DISEMBOWELMENT OF PALM, and the competition dwindles down to only 2 or 3 survivors, chances are good that Apple can finally get some breathing room and spend more time focusing on improving the (long neglected) Apple TV.