Coming soon: super fast broadband and the internet on your TV.
A set-top box from Google is getting closer to your living room. It comes 2 weeks after the search engine giant announced an experimental plan to light up 1,000 megabits-per-second (mbps) broadband connections to as many as 500,000 US households.
The New York Times is reporting that Google has teamed up with an all-star constellation that includes Sony, Intel, and Logitech to bring a fully Web-enabled and Android powered box to consumers. The newspaper's anonymous sources claim that this project has been brewing "for several months."
"The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel," the article says.
Internet TV Here We Come
The platform can be worked into set-top boxes or directly into TV sets, and Logitech's custom remote control will probably include a full QWERTY keyboard for seamless searching and browsing. I would also expect that gadget to work like a Nintendo Wii controller, which lets you navigate on-screen environments by pointing the remote at the screen.
This four-way partnership breaks new ground in many ways. Sony hopes to steal a march on its rivals in consumer electronics by being first to market with hyper-connected media players and TV sets -- though heavyweight rivals like Motorola, Toshiba, and Samsung are part of Android's Open Handset Alliance and could be working on their own Android applications for the living room as we speak. Intel hopes to push its Atom chips into new markets, and Logitech is simply doing what the company already does best..
Google has a two-pronged objective: Expand Web surfing into the living room with the commensurate extra ad clicks, and provide a natural platform on which to build a mechanism that serves personalised TV ads based on your browsing history.
Some might call that an evil invasion of your privacy, but you could call it smart business and the obvious way forward for Google and for an advertising industry that seems short on real innovation.
So there you have it, folks: A Google TV box or Google-powered TV set is coming to a DGSI International (LSE: DSGI) store near you. We don't know exactly when, though The New York Times believes that "products based on the [Android TV] software could appear as soon as this summer."
Too Many Gadgets?
It won't be all plain sailing for the big G. The company has a decent history of innovation, including Google Earth and Gmail, but it has also had its fair share of flops, like Buzz, its attempt at social networking. Although the company has achieved much, today the far majority of Google's revenue and profits still come from its online search engine ad network.
And then there are the technicalities and practicalities of adding yet another set top box to your television. Where will the box sit in your already over-crowded living room? Are there enough input plugs on your TV for Sky TV, Playstation, DVD player and Google's set top box? What gives?
That said, we are undoubtedly standing at a cusp of a new era in entertainment and information. Will the sea change be good or bad for consumers and investors? Discuss in the comments below.
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> This article was originally written by Anders Byland, and published on Fool.com. It has been updated by Bruce Jackson, who has an interest in Intel.
