LG Is Said to Plan to Debut Google TV at Trade Show in January
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. and LG Electronics Inc. may unveil a television using the search giant's software at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to two people with knowledge of the project.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google TV launched in late 2010 as a set-top play, with Logitech as the launch hardware partner behind the October 6 unveiling of its Google TV box. A year on, Gadget Lab's syndicated headline — 'Dissed by Logitech, Google TV Soldiers On' — captures where that partnership landed: the first-mover hardware ally has cooled on the platform.
Bloomberg's report, sourced to two people with knowledge of the project, says LG Electronics may show a television running Google's software at CES in January. The significance is the shift in hardware class: from an add-on box sold by a peripheral maker to sets built by one of the world's largest TV manufacturers.
First-order effects
- LG would gain a ready-made connected-TV software stack for its CES lineup, while Google gets its first reported TV-maker partner after Logitech's retreat from the category.
Second-order effects
- Rival TV makers shipping their own smart-TV platforms face pressure to match a major competitor bundling Google's search, apps, and content deals into the set itself, and Google can pitch those rivals the same stack rather than building each integration alone.
Third-order effects
- If TV makers keep adopting mobile-derived operating systems instead of proprietary interfaces, the living-room contest becomes a platform war between a few OS vendors, with TV manufacturers competing mainly on panels and price atop shared software.
The trend: Smart TVs are consolidating around mobile operating systems — Android foremost among them — as TV makers outsource the software layer they once built themselves.