LG Electronics to launch Google TV in U.S. in late May: executive
(Reuters) - LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.2 TV maker, plans to launch Internet-enabled TV based on Google's platform in the United States in the week of May 21, as the South Korean firm seeks to gain a larger share …
Context & Ripple Effects
This launch closes a loop that opened years earlier: Google announced its U.S. TV service back in autumn 2010, and reports in November 2011 said LG planned a Google TV debut at the January trade show. The pairing itself is older still — LG and Google have cooperated since their 2007 mobile partnership, so this extends an existing alliance from phones to the living room.
First-order effects
- LG, the world's No.2 TV maker, gets an internet-enabled flagship line in its largest market from the week of May 21 — a share-grab lever distinct from panel specs.
- Google gains a top-two television manufacturer shipping its platform on sets rather than add-on boxes, addressing the hardware-partner problem that has dogged Google TV since its 2010 debut.
Second-order effects
- Google's parallel content push — confirmed investments in video maker Machinima and payments to creators producing for YouTube — suddenly has premium shelf space, since a TV platform is only worth bundling if there is something to watch on it.
- Rival set-makers are forced to answer whether they license Google's OS, build their own smart-TV stack, or cede the connected-TV interface layer to a platform owner.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, value in televisions migrates from panel manufacturing toward whoever controls the operating system and app distribution — turning No.2-class hardware makers into licensed shells for someone else's software layer.
- A successful LG rollout would make Google TV the template other OEMs sign onto, concentrating living-room access points under platform owners much as Android did in mobile.
The trend: Consumer-electronics manufacturers are increasingly renting operating systems and content ecosystems from platform companies, trading interface control for differentiation and reach.