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Stuart · 11-10-2010, 20:40

Sony backing it is not a guarantee of success. Sony don't have a great record of backing winning technologies.. Look at Betamax (roundly beaten by the inferior VHS). Look at the the Walkman MP3 players (Walkman did well as a tape brand but has been largely beaten by the iPod in the MP3 arena). While the PS2 was (and is) the best selling console ever, the PS3 has been out sold by both the Wii and the Xbox 360. Look at Sony Connect, which has been beaten by every current online music store.

However, their TVs are generally excellent.

Will Google TV do well? I don't know. Internet based TV hasn't generally done well so far. I think the problems Google TV has got to overcome are that for full internet access, the average remote control is not really practical. OK, so, TBH, the average phone keypad isn't really practical, but people are often willing to put up with the problems for the conveniance of accessing the internet on the move. If they are sitting in front of a 42 inch LCD, they don't have that conveniance, so would probably be just as likely to use a PC, laptop or netbook/iPad.

The other problem is that many people don't live near enough to their exchange to get a good enough speed for ANY IPTV based service. Their connection may be good enough to stream a small, low quality, youtube clip. It may even be good enough to stream SD footage from a web based on demand service (such as iPlayer). Will it be good enough to stream the full 1080i currently carried by both Sky and VM though?

Will Apps help? Possibly not. The answer depends largely on how many current Android users actually install apps. A lot don't. It also depends on what kind of Apps they download (if it's primarily online guides like Yelp or online news services, then they aren't going to see any real advantage to using those Apps on an LCD.

Google don't have a 100% record on picking winners either. Remember Google Wave? Orkut (which admittedly is doing well in India, but not so well anywhere else)?

11-10-2010, 20:40	#21
Stuart - Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Somewhere Services: Virgin for TV and Internet, BT for phone Posts: 26,546	Re: Tivo Sony backing it is not a guarantee of success. Sony don't have a great record of backing winning technologies.. Look at Betamax (roundly beaten by the inferior VHS). Look at the the Walkman MP3 players (Walkman did well as a tape brand but has been largely beaten by the iPod in the MP3 arena). While the PS2 was (and is) the best selling console ever, the PS3 has been out sold by both the Wii and the Xbox 360. Look at Sony Connect, which has been beaten by every current online music store. However, their TVs are generally excellent. Will Google TV do well? I don't know. Internet based TV hasn't generally done well so far. I think the problems Google TV has got to overcome are that for full internet access, the average remote control is not really practical. OK, so, TBH, the average phone keypad isn't really practical, but people are often willing to put up with the problems for the conveniance of accessing the internet on the move. If they are sitting in front of a 42 inch LCD, they don't have that conveniance, so would probably be just as likely to use a PC, laptop or netbook/iPad. The other problem is that many people don't live near enough to their exchange to get a good enough speed for ANY IPTV based service. Their connection may be good enough to stream a small, low quality, youtube clip. It may even be good enough to stream SD footage from a web based on demand service (such as iPlayer). Will it be good enough to stream the full 1080i currently carried by both Sky and VM though? Will Apps help? Possibly not. The answer depends largely on how many current Android users actually install apps. A lot don't. It also depends on what kind of Apps they download (if it's primarily online guides like Yelp or online news services, then they aren't going to see any real advantage to using those Apps on an LCD. Google don't have a 100% record on picking winners either. Remember Google Wave? Orkut (which admittedly is doing well in India, but not so well anywhere else)?