San Francisco:
Google recruited a solid lineup of high-tech companies on Thursday to help it introduce Google TV, a new service that merges the predictable world of television programming with the more chaotic expanse of the Web.
Google's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, left, with executives from companies that are helping to bring Google TV to consumers.
Now it has to persuade the TV audience to turn the living room television into the newest on-ramp to the Internet.
Google TV, which the company introduced at its annual developer conference here, lets people visit any Web site from their televisions and easily search for programs and Web video without scrolling through unwieldy on-screen TV directories.
The service will be built into high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players made by Sony and a set-top box made by Logitech, which also makes PC peripherals like keyboards. It is powered by Google's Android software, originally developed for smartphones. The devices will go on sale in the fall.
The effort is likely to face formidable challenges. Google must persuade television manufacturers other than Sony to use its software, and retailers other than the electronics chain Best Buy to sell the devices. And consumers have demonstrated little interest, so far, in connecting to the Web through their TVs.
What they have shown is price sensitivity, and the high-powered Intel Atom chips that will be at the heart of devices running Google TV are likely to add to their cost. Intel has spent billions of dollars developing those chips over the last few years in a high-stakes push to crack the market for consumer electronics.
The companies declined to discuss prices.
Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, the third-largest maker of flat-panel televisions in the United States market, appeared on Google's stage to say Sony would build Google's software into a high-definition television called the Sony Internet TV, as well as a Blu-ray player.
He also said Sony was likely to gradually adopt Google's software, which he cited as more robust and comprehensive than the company's own Bravia Internet service, for its other Internet-connected TVs.
Mr. Stringer was joined on the stage by the chief executives of Best Buy, Adobe, Intel, Dish Networks and Logitech, where they were interviewed about their plans by Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief executive.
Mr. Schmidt said that people had been talking about bringing the Web to the TV for two decades. "It's much harder to marry a 50-year-old technology and a brand-new technology than those of us from the brand-new technology industry thought," he said.
Devices running Google TV will also be able to run applications written for Android phones and will feature Google's Chrome Web browser.
Logitech's set-top box will allow people to receive Google TV without having to buy a new television set. The company said it was also working on keyboard-equipped remote controls and peripherals to allow people to surf the Web from the couch
Many companies have already tried to bridge the gap between the television and the Web. TiVo, Boxee, Roku and Vudu, now a division of Wal-Mart, all make devices that offer a variety of Internet video on the television. All have struggled to gain broad adoption, in part because most consumers do not want to hook another set-top box to their TVs.
Roku has sold more than 500,000 set-top boxes, but its sales took off only when the price sank below $100, said Anthony Wood, the company's chief executive. Noting the premium prices that devices running Google TV would probably sell for, Mr. Wood said, "I don't think it's a threat as it is today, but certainly over time Google is going to get market share."
Television manufacturers already sell so-called connected TVs with limited Internet ability, which in some cases is provided by a Google rival, Yahoo. Such models are likely to make up a quarter of all televisions sold this year, according to analysts. But many consumers do not even know they are buying that feature and usually make their shopping decisions based on the size and appearance of the set.
If Google's effort is successful, it could create problems for traditional cable companies, as more people could look to the wealth of content on the Internet and bypass their cable provider's profitable video-on-demand offerings.
"The video-on-demand experience has always been antiquated at best," said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG, a financial services firm. Google TV and similar efforts "put pressure squarely on cable operators and anyone in the business of distributing video content to improve their user experience."
Google did not talk about its advertising strategy for Google TV, but it could use its formidable data-collection abilities to aim new types of ads at television-watching consumers. The company said users would have control over what information was shared with advertisers.
One advantage Google believes it has in courting other television manufacturers is the success of its Android platform for mobile phones -- and the fact that TV makers like LG Electronics and Samsung already sell phones running Android. On Thursday, Google said that 100,000 new Android phones were activated every day, up from 60,000 in April -- second in the industry only to phones from Research In Motion.
Google executives promoted the notion that Google seemed to have already surpassed its rival Apple in this respect, although Apple still has a far larger base of devices running the iPhone operating system. It recently reported that it had shipped 85 million iPhones and iPod Touches, and more than a million iPad tablet computers.
Apple could invest more in the TV business soon. It sells an Apple TV set-top box, which it deems a hobby and which most analysts view as a lackluster product. It would now make sense for Apple to update that product, adding a Blu-ray player, for example. Or Apple could offer its iTunes service to other set-top box and TV makers, or manufacture its own flat-panel television that links to iTunes.
"Google TV is more than anything finally going to create some energy over at Apple to make a television, or at least a version of the iPad that docks with a TV," said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.
In an interview, Vic Gundotra, vice president for engineering at Google, used the momentum of Android, a free open-source platform with few rules governing its use, to draw a sharp distinction with the control Apple exerts over devices running the iPhone operating system.
"If you believe that the only way to get a good smartphone is to bet on one man, one device, one carrier and one choice, that is a different model than we believe in," Mr. Gundotra said. "We believe innovation doesn't come from one man; it comes from all of us."
Google's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, left, with executives from companies that are helping to bring Google TV to consumers.
Now it has to persuade the TV audience to turn the living room television into the newest on-ramp to the Internet.
Google TV, which the company introduced at its annual developer conference here, lets people visit any Web site from their televisions and easily search for programs and Web video without scrolling through unwieldy on-screen TV directories.
The service will be built into high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players made by Sony and a set-top box made by Logitech, which also makes PC peripherals like keyboards. It is powered by Google's Android software, originally developed for smartphones. The devices will go on sale in the fall.
The effort is likely to face formidable challenges. Google must persuade television manufacturers other than Sony to use its software, and retailers other than the electronics chain Best Buy to sell the devices. And consumers have demonstrated little interest, so far, in connecting to the Web through their TVs.
What they have shown is price sensitivity, and the high-powered Intel Atom chips that will be at the heart of devices running Google TV are likely to add to their cost. Intel has spent billions of dollars developing those chips over the last few years in a high-stakes push to crack the market for consumer electronics.
The companies declined to discuss prices.
Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, the third-largest maker of flat-panel televisions in the United States market, appeared on Google's stage to say Sony would build Google's software into a high-definition television called the Sony Internet TV, as well as a Blu-ray player.
He also said Sony was likely to gradually adopt Google's software, which he cited as more robust and comprehensive than the company's own Bravia Internet service, for its other Internet-connected TVs.
Mr. Stringer was joined on the stage by the chief executives of Best Buy, Adobe, Intel, Dish Networks and Logitech, where they were interviewed about their plans by Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief executive.
Mr. Schmidt said that people had been talking about bringing the Web to the TV for two decades. "It's much harder to marry a 50-year-old technology and a brand-new technology than those of us from the brand-new technology industry thought," he said.
Devices running Google TV will also be able to run applications written for Android phones and will feature Google's Chrome Web browser.
Logitech's set-top box will allow people to receive Google TV without having to buy a new television set. The company said it was also working on keyboard-equipped remote controls and peripherals to allow people to surf the Web from the couch
Many companies have already tried to bridge the gap between the television and the Web. TiVo, Boxee, Roku and Vudu, now a division of Wal-Mart, all make devices that offer a variety of Internet video on the television. All have struggled to gain broad adoption, in part because most consumers do not want to hook another set-top box to their TVs.
Roku has sold more than 500,000 set-top boxes, but its sales took off only when the price sank below $100, said Anthony Wood, the company's chief executive. Noting the premium prices that devices running Google TV would probably sell for, Mr. Wood said, "I don't think it's a threat as it is today, but certainly over time Google is going to get market share."
Television manufacturers already sell so-called connected TVs with limited Internet ability, which in some cases is provided by a Google rival, Yahoo. Such models are likely to make up a quarter of all televisions sold this year, according to analysts. But many consumers do not even know they are buying that feature and usually make their shopping decisions based on the size and appearance of the set.
If Google's effort is successful, it could create problems for traditional cable companies, as more people could look to the wealth of content on the Internet and bypass their cable provider's profitable video-on-demand offerings.
"The video-on-demand experience has always been antiquated at best," said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG, a financial services firm. Google TV and similar efforts "put pressure squarely on cable operators and anyone in the business of distributing video content to improve their user experience."
Google did not talk about its advertising strategy for Google TV, but it could use its formidable data-collection abilities to aim new types of ads at television-watching consumers. The company said users would have control over what information was shared with advertisers.
One advantage Google believes it has in courting other television manufacturers is the success of its Android platform for mobile phones -- and the fact that TV makers like LG Electronics and Samsung already sell phones running Android. On Thursday, Google said that 100,000 new Android phones were activated every day, up from 60,000 in April -- second in the industry only to phones from Research In Motion.
Google executives promoted the notion that Google seemed to have already surpassed its rival Apple in this respect, although Apple still has a far larger base of devices running the iPhone operating system. It recently reported that it had shipped 85 million iPhones and iPod Touches, and more than a million iPad tablet computers.
Apple could invest more in the TV business soon. It sells an Apple TV set-top box, which it deems a hobby and which most analysts view as a lackluster product. It would now make sense for Apple to update that product, adding a Blu-ray player, for example. Or Apple could offer its iTunes service to other set-top box and TV makers, or manufacture its own flat-panel television that links to iTunes.
"Google TV is more than anything finally going to create some energy over at Apple to make a television, or at least a version of the iPad that docks with a TV," said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.
In an interview, Vic Gundotra, vice president for engineering at Google, used the momentum of Android, a free open-source platform with few rules governing its use, to draw a sharp distinction with the control Apple exerts over devices running the iPhone operating system.
"If you believe that the only way to get a good smartphone is to bet on one man, one device, one carrier and one choice, that is a different model than we believe in," Mr. Gundotra said. "We believe innovation doesn't come from one man; it comes from all of us."
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