Looking ahead to Google TV
I recently had a client ask me what I thought about Google TV. "Is this something that we should be following?" he asked. My initial take is that Google TV has the potential to be a game changer....if it's done right. For those unfamiliar with this new venture, Google wants to incorporate third party applications and advanced web browsing into the living room TV experience. It looks like it'll be built around the Android operating system, which has been giving the iPhone platform all it can handle over the last few months.
Personally, I love where they're going with the idea. It would provide seamless integration between your TV, online and mobile experiences. Now, you can already access the web, download movies and watch pay-per-view content on your TV. Google wants to take it a step further and bring open sourced third party applications into the home. This approach could potentially separate it from the pack. On a related note, Apple is choosing to go in a slightly different direction by expanding larger scale applications to a personal netbook (iPad). It'll be interesting to see if Jobs ever follows Google into the TV realm. With Apple's closed source philosophy, I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Without seeing a prototype, I think that one of Google's biggest challenges will be making the user's experience an intuitive one (which, by the way, is my biggest beef with the Android operating system). It will be a complete bust if it's too clunky or complex. They need to take a page out of Apple's book and keep everything simple.
Another major concern is whether or not people are going to be receptive to surfing the web on their TVs. Consumers are slowly warming up to the idea of downloading movies via Netflix or On-demand. But are they ready to make the jump to Tweeting and checking their email while the family sits around and watches? We'll see.
I'm also curious to see how they'll incorporate advertising into the experience. Will Google rely on traditional banner and Ad-word revenue, or will it compete head to head with network advertising by offering :30 and :60 spots? My bet is on a combination of the two. If that's the case, what type of push back will it receive from the broadcast and cable networks?
So, I guess the short answer is that there are still a lot of question marks surrounding Google's plan right now. If they can overcome some of these issues, then they'll completely change the way we watch TV. I'm really anxious to see how it plays out.
Comments
hmmm, the future of tv is pretty sketchy.. check this
www.shirky.com
it's all about how content is headed for a nose dive. btw, got here via your facebook feed
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