Google TV Three Months Later

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There are many people I know that are loyal Apple customers, they are unaffectionately known as Apple fanboys and possibly "mactards" (not to be confused with "huntards"). These people might even read a little too much appleinsider.com, but when they speak some points are valid. I once heard from these people, "Google is a pretty good company, but they just throw things up in the air and see what sticks."

While Google does seem to swing at fences many times, it's admirable. Admirable that a company thinks about the future of its company outside the scope of a quarterly report. With that said, Google has succeeded (Gmail, Android) and flopped (Wave*, Buzz).  What side of the line will Google TV land on?

Reasons to believe Google TV will succeed.
1) Some computer tasks just work better on a TV (i.e. streaming Netflix videos, watching movie trailers, checking your fantasy team stats while watching the game).
2) The timing is right with the increase in bandwidth which allows for a more seamless integration of TV and web.
3) Have you seen the user interface of the cable companies' boxes? I'm looking at you Time Warner and Charter.  Google TV's user interface is a sight for sore eyes.
4) Google has the money and patience to give the product time to develop.

Reasons to believe Google TV will flop.
1) Without the support of the studios, leaving Google TV unable to access their web content, how can consumers justify paying $200-$340 more for Google TV than Roku? For web browsing capabilities? Negative.
2) The price needs to go down. $300 and $400 "options" are not options for those of us without trust funds.
3) No sales numbers have been released thus far, which usually equates to low sales numbers.

The verdict:  Google TV is doomed to fail at that price range without the support of the studios to access their web content. **  Google TV can stay afloat without the studios if they bundle it with blue-ray capabilities and bring the price down.  I would shell out $200 for a product like that (wi-fi card included, please).

If you have never heard of Google TV, check out this video:


*I can't believe people didn't buy into this one.  I am disappointed.
** For more information on Google TV getting blocked by studios follow this link, Sad news for Google TV.

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