Google is curbing sales of Google TV, its operating system for connected TV. The company has asked a number of new hardware partners to delay their demonstrations originally planned for the Las Vegas trade show CES in January, the New York Times reported. Google TV has already been on the market a couple months as part of TVs from Sony and a Logitech box. Toshiba, LG and Sharp were reportedly to show new TV sets at CES (the annual Consumer Electronics Show), while Samsung and Vizio are expected to go ahead with private demos of Google TV.
Google TV is not the only product facing delays. Chrome OS, Google's operating system for notebooks, and Google Fiber, its trial FTTH network in the US, will also not meet their deadlines of end-2010 and are being pushed to 2011.
In the connected TV market, Google is also far from the only one with delays. The Dutch partners Conceptronic and Metrological (Yuixx box), Telecom Italia (Cubovision box made by Amino) and Boxee/D-Link (the Boxee Box) have all had to delay the introduction of hybrid set-top boxes several times.
The delays are apparently due to a number of resons.
• Technical problems. The common feature in all of the above products is Intel's presence. Each of the devices is based on an Atom system-on-chip (SoC) from Intel (CE 3100, CE4100, CE4150). French operator Iliad (Free) has launched already its hybrid STB with an Intel chip, and Comcast in the US is testing such as box.
• Disappointing sales. The couch potato is stubborn, limiting the addressable market. However the market is changing. A younger generation is watching increasingly less linear broadcast TV than older people. According to research from Forrester, young people, as well as the age group 31-44, are spending just as much time on the internet as on TV.
• User friendliness weak. The development of new user interfaces is far from complete. The industry is struggling with the issue of content discovery: how to offer a new category of content without flooding the consumer with choices?
• Limited content. Google TV especially has been hit with a Hollywood boycott. All the major networks in the US are withholding their content from Google. Rumours suggest Google is working on a streaming movie service, likely to make Google TV more attractive.
Technical problems, including a greater ease of use, can be resolved. It's not simple, but things are changing quickly enough that a solution is unavoidable. And if Intel remains a source of trouble, then there are always competitors – such as the new Broadcom SoC ( BCM7244), specially made for use in hybrid set-top boxes.
Content is a more sensitive issue. The major players have a tight grip on their content – at least when it comes to legal applications. They have high demands for DRM and a complicated legal structure, where rights are divided at all types of levels (geographic, for broadcast TV, digital, internet, mobile etc). Hybrid set-top boxes break down these divisions by bringing online content to the TV.
UltraViolet (previously known as DECE, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem), the new content system which has almost universal industry backing, can likely change this. It envisages a 'digital locker', a new file format and DRM, allowing consumers to buy content just once and then watch it on any device. This is already happening in the print world – see Amazon's Kindle e-reader slogan 'Buy Once, Read Everwhere'. It's time for the video (and music) industries to join in, as it's not just Google frustrated by the strict rights policy, but more the consumer, who is being denied use of all these remarkable new applications.
Telecompaper is organizing on 27 April the Connected TV 2011 conference.
