So, back in early September, Apple announced their revamp of Apple TV, and everybody was interested for about three minutes until they all realized that it didn’t matter if the little box was cool because the service still sucked.
Around the same time the first rumors about Apple TV (now iTV, of course), Google announced that they, too, would be putting together a similar sort of service package, but instead of making a box themselves, they would simply license out the Android-based software to the regular assortment of electronics manufacturers and let them figure it out. This worked pretty well with Android on smartphones, which has taken off quite strongly, while Google’s own Nexus One phone crashed and burned in the space of six months. So, sure, let someone else make the hardware.
Though there isn’t the same legion of frothing fanbois that Apple has at its beck and call, the initial response to the announcement generated a lot of hyperbolic optimism like this because Google has managed to hang on to a lot of positive feeling in the techie crowd, despite a whole slew of dud projects over the last year. However, the first actual “Google TV” product was unveiled this week by Sony, and you can almost hear the lead balloon hitting the floor. The remote control alone will kill this sucker deader than a doornail. This TechCrunch post captures the profound ambivalence from the technogeek crowd pretty well, because most gearheads look at a remote like that as a challenge to be mastered, but even they realize that this has no chance in hell with ordinary consumers.
Like other attempts to jam the Internet and television into the same appliance, this hits the same wall: people may like to watch TV on their computers, but they don’t seem to want to use their TV *as* their computer. In this case, the iTV actually ends up looking better than the Google TV, since it adheres more closely to the idea of being a service enabler for your TV, even if the service offering is kinda weak. Yes, the iTV will probably make some apps available to run on your TV, but Apple seems to realize that there is a gulf of perception between the iPad and iTV in terms of how people will use the device, despite being able to bring the exact same stuff to either device. If Sony’s first-guy-in-the-pool effort is emblematic of how Google TV will position itself, get ready for another entry into the Unloved Technology Hall Of Fame right next to WebTV and laserdiscs.
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