Logitech's Google TV set-top box will be the Logitech Revue
Logitech just confirmed a previous report from Engadget that its Google TV set-top box will be called the Logitech Revue. Still no word on pricing or when we'll see any of this launch (other than “this fall"), but Logitech did give an explanation regarding the name:
Context & Ripple Effects
The idea of a Google-powered set-top box predates this announcement by years — TechCrunch speculated on exactly such an 'Android for TV' device back in November 2007 (Google's set-top-box ambitions). With today's confirmation, that speculation has a named product: Logitech verified Engadget's report that its Google TV box will ship as the Logitech Revue this fall.
Naming matters here because Logitech is staking its brand on Google's platform rather than its own — the Revue will live or die by how Google TV itself fares against incumbent living-room devices.
First-order effects
- Logitech now has a public identity as Google TV's launch hardware partner, letting it start marketing the Revue ahead of a fall release that still lacks announced pricing.
- Consumers following the connected-TV space get a concrete product to evaluate instead of an unnamed reference design, though purchase decisions stay on hold until Logitech names a price.
Second-order effects
- Rival living-room platforms — Apple's Apple TV most directly, given how the press framed 2010 as a Google-versus-Apple TV contest — face a competitor whose distribution runs through partner hardware rather than a single vendor's box.
- Other consumer-electronics makers watching the Revue must decide whether to build on Google TV or back competing platforms, since Logitech's move sets the template for what a Google TV partnership looks like.
Third-order effects
- If Google TV gains traction through partners like Logitech, television hardware could split into the same open-platform model Android brought to phones — many branded devices on one Google-controlled software layer.
- Broadcasters and pay-TV operators would then hold the swing position, since Google TV's value depends on access to their content, making carriage-style negotiations the next battleground if the fall launch lands well.
The trend: Consumer-electronics makers are signing on as hardware partners for Google platform plays, extending the Android handset playbook of shared software and many branded devices into the living room.