Google is reportedly planning to phase out its ‘Google TV’ products in favour of a more mobile friendly ‘Android TV’ range, as the firm continues its battle with the likes of Apple and Microsoft in the battle for the living room audience of the future. Technology blog GigaOM cites ‘an unnamed electronics manufacturer that has […]
Google is reportedly planning to phase out its ‘Google TV’ products in favour of a more mobile friendly ‘Android TV’ range, as the firm continues its battle with the likes of Apple and Microsoft in the battle for the living room audience of the future.
Technology blog GigaOM cites ‘an unnamed electronics manufacturer that has produced Google TV products’ claiming that Google has quietly dropped the Smart TV platform’s name.
Members of the original Google TV team have reportedly stopped using that label when talking about their work, and a recent developer event in Seoul was officially called “Android TV Developer Day”.
Some associated developers have even changed their online biographies to match what could be the platform’s new name: Android TV, according to the Giga OM report.
Even last month STMicroelectronics said that the new SDK for its set-top box processors would support “the latest Google services for TV”. LG also recently revealed new Android devices that had access to the “latest Google services for TV” without mentioning the Google TV name.
Although Google declined to comment, the new name transition was further confirmed by a consumer electronics manufacturer who produces Google TV devices.
The article goes on to point out that Sony didn’t mention the fact that its new Bravia TV stick used Google TV, but instead announced that the device “brings the full power of Google services to your TV.”
This was echoed by LG who recently announced a handful of new devices, saying only that they ran Android and featured “Google services for TV”.
Back in July, Google launched its £23 Chromecast TV dongle, a low cost competitor to Apple TV that plugs into a TV’s HDMI slot and streams media, controlled via almost any PC or mobile.
Read the GigaOM report here.
