For the longest time, it seemed like Google TV wasn’t really going anywhere despite all the money Google and its hardware partners were pouring into the platform. You could still argue that it’s not going anywhere, but Google apparently has some big plans for the platform this year.
Google announced today that Google TV will have a big presence at this year’s CES coming up next week. The company says that we’ll see “more Google TV partners, updates from existing partners, and more content coming to the platform.”
Speaking of new partners, Google says that Asus, Hisense, TCL and other OEMs will be showing off Google TV products that will be launching in the coming weeks. There will also be new products from existing partners like LG, Vizio, Sony and others on the show floor. In all, Google says that Google TV will be available in set-top boxes, integrated TVs and IPTV boxes from 9 manufacturers in 10 countries around the world.
Of course, all that means nothing if Google can’t get people to buy Google TVs in the first place. The set-top box seems to be the company’s best bet at taking over the living room as buying a Smart TV has yet to prove financially reasonable. Set-top boxes, like Vizio’s CO-Star, are incredibly cheap and compete with Apple TV on equal footing in just about every category.
Either way, it will be interesting to see what Google TV brings to the table at CES this year. The potential threat of an actual Apple television still hangs above all the other TV manufacturers as they bring their best to the show. Bigger TVs aren’t going to cut it anymore so Google TV better have some new tricks up its sleeve.