Drawbacks
The starting price, in particular, is a bit on the high side. The cheapest way to get into Google TV is this Logitech Revue kit at $300. I think the hardware in the Logitech Revue kit is worth $300 for sure and it’s not like the price won’t eventually drop and other boxes won’t come out for cheaper. But right now for Google TV as a platform, it’s kind of like a blind date showing up wearing a wedding dress. Less expensive options can’t come along soon enough.
I think $150 would be a killer price point, but even $200 without the keyboard would be a nice option to have—you’ll be able to use a Logitech/Google TV keyboard app with the iPhone and Android phones, though the iPhone app wasn’t available for download while I was testing everything out.
Another potential problem arises when you have multiple Google TV fans living under the same roof. The box asks for the credentials from one Google account upon setup, but it’d be nice to have multiple, switchable user accounts so each person could have their own favorites and apps. Something tells me that feature is probably coming sooner or later, though.
The biggest issue lies with the content providers. For example, even though the built-in web browser looks and feels just like a computer web browser, guess what happens when you go to Hulu.com? You’re greeted with this:
That’s certifiably insane considering you have a computer hooked up to your TV, except the computer says “Google TV” on it. It goes to show how much power these content companies have, though, and how crazy they start acting as people get closer and closer to connecting computers to their TVs.
The Big Picture
Google TV’s real potential competition comes from the likes of TiVo and Comcast since those companies’ boxes are input one devices. TiVo’s done an okay job of rounding out its internet-based video offerings, but it doesn’t have the web browser. Comcast has on-demand, but no networking features whatsoever. Verizon’s come the closest with its FiOS widgets and networking capabilities. Any of these companies could (and should) do what Google’s done, even if the end results are somewhat clunkier than Google TV at first.
I think the $300 price tag is going to scare a lot of consumers away unless they really get the idea of what’s being done here. Google would be wise to send a representative to every single Best Buy store in the country just to demonstrate how everything works. I don’t think Google’s marketed Google TV strongly enough and I don’t think it’s done enough to stress how the product is different from the sub-$100 streaming media boxes like Apple TV.
As a platform, everything works together relatively cohesively. The fusion of TV and the web is a weird thing to conceptualize, but Google’s done an admirable job of tying it all together and presenting it in an interface that isn’t too overwhelming. That being said, it’s still a geeky product. For a Google product, though, it’s already impressively polished. This isn’t something the company launched in beta with plans on updating it along the way. Updates will happen, sure, but it’s already a powerful technological showcase.
I showed Google TV to one of my normal, non-techie friends yesterday and he got exponentially more excited as I dug deeper into what can be done with it. He eventually stopped me and said, “This is all I want for Christmas.”
His thought was that he could cut the tie with Comcast this way, which is true to a certain extent. The real beauty of Google TV, though, is that you don’t have to cut the tie with your cable provider until you’re ready—or ever. It enhances how you currently watch TV while offering the same a la carte programming as competing TV boxes. And if there’s someone in your house that doesn’t want to have to re-learn a whole new TV system, they can keep watching TV as they normally do without Google TV interfering.
In that sense, it’s a bridge into the future of TV. It doesn’t assume that people want to get rid of their cable subscriptions all at once but if and when they do, it’ll act as a fine video-on-demand box with a full internet browser.
The world won’t end if you wait until less expensive devices hit the market. But if you happen to get a chance to try Google TV out in person and you really get into all it can do, it’s going to be hard to resist the purchase.
More on Techland:
Sony Unveils Internet Connected Google TV Products
Two Minute Video: The One Killer Feature of Google TV
More Google TV Details: Content Partnerships, Apps, and More
