Google TV: silent but not forgotten at I/O 2013
Android is coming to our TVs, but has Google already lost the battle for the living room? — It's easy to miss the Google TV booth here at I/O 2013, hidden in the corner of the third floor. That may not be an accident …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's television ambitions date back to its Android-flavored set-top box plans in 2007, and by March 2010 it had lined up partners for a formal television foothold — followed within months by an advertiser pitch positioning Google TV as a new ad surface. The reception was rough: by late 2010 reviewers were calling out fundamental usability problems, and the platform never escaped that shadow.
At I/O 2013 the picture is one of ambivalence. Google has confirmed that Android is coming to televisions through the Google TV platform, yet the booth sits in a third-floor corner of Moscone while the four-hour keynote goes to other products — an unconfirmed read, but a widely shared one among attendees, that the living room is no longer a priority stage for Google.
First-order effects
- Developers at I/O get no headline commitment behind Google TV, leaving the platform's roadmap dependent on the written confirmation that Android is coming to TVs rather than any onstage push.
- TV hardware partners who signed onto the 2010 launch are left selling devices against a platform whose own developer conference barely showcases it.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers courted back in September 2010, when Google pitched top ad buyers on Google TV inventory, face an audience whose growth depends on a platform Google itself is underselling.
- Google's parallel push of VP9 video compression, nearly complete as of this week's I/O, signals where its TV energy actually sits: streaming efficiency rather than the Google TV interface critics panned in 2010.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Google's TV strategy converges on its mobile stack — the 2007 set-top box idea maturing into Android-on-television, with the Google TV brand as a transitional shell rather than the destination.
- A low-profile Google leaves the living-room interface question open for rivals and cable incumbents, repeating the vacuum that let early usability complaints define the category's first three years.
The trend: Google's six-year march from set-top box concept to Android-based television keeps stalling at the same point: the technology ships, but the developer and partner enthusiasm needed to win the living room does not follow.