Google is rumoured to be axing Google TV in favour of a new approach with a new name – Android TV.
The company’s vision for a living room box has failed to gain traction with customers, leading to a bit of a rethink from the software giant.
A new report from GigaOm claims that Google is in the process of rebranding and realigning its Google TV service with hardware partners.
Just three years after the first Google TV device rolled off the shelves, it’s suggested that Google will shift to a new TV software model that mirrors its work in smartphones – hence the new Android TV moniker.
Android TV, it’s claimed, will allow hardware manufacturers to add their own custom interfaces onto Google’s bare bones framework. Indeed, the report claims that we’ve already seen the fruits of this realignment from Google.
Last month Sony launched a new Smart TV adaptor called the Bravia TV, which is based on the latest version of Google TV. However, Sony’s marketing blurb didn’t make mention of that fact at all. All it said was that the device brought “the full power of Google services to your TV.” LG used similar wording when announcing its latest devices.
Even more tellingly, Swiss chipset manufacturer STMicroelectronics recently announced its support for Google TV products. However, there was no mention of Google TV itself in the announcement, with the company instead noting that the SDK “allows the development of Android-compliant devices and supports the latest Google services for TV.”
To top it all off, even those working on the Google TV software itself have begun dropping the name from their biographies in favour of Android TV. They also dubbed a recent developer event held in Seoul an “Android TV Developer Day.”
Those bored of tech journos whinging on about wanting stock Android on their phones should brace themselves – it looks like that argument is set to spill into the living room.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
