25/06/2012

Google Enters 'Smart TV' Market

Google will make its first move into the UK “smart TV” market with the launch in July of its first product – made by Sony – to let Britons surf the internet, play games and watch videos on TV.

The move comes amid predictions that Apple is preparing to enter the market, to compete not only with Google, but with Samsung, Sony and LG.

All have been aiming to catch a nascent market that analysts say will become very important because it is one of the few bastions of entertainment not yet revolutionised by the internet.

Google has a partnership with Sony to launch the internet TV set-top boxes, priced £200-£300, in UK stores from 16 July.

The gadgets are based on Google's Android software for smartphones and will let viewers switch between popular online applications such as Twitter and the BBC's iPlayer while watching live TV.

Google's TV offering has struggled in the US, where it launched in October 2010. Logitech, a partner, lost millions after launching a Google TV set-top box in the US at Christmas 2010. During one quarter, customers returned more boxes than were bought and the company later pulled out.

Google has since spent heavily on the product, as the living room shapes up to be the latest battleground for internet companies. Nearly a million net-connected TVs were sold in the UK in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, out of a total of 10m TV sales. But it is not clear how many were then actually connected to the net.

(H)

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