Android TV

Android TV: Google TV gets a new name

This could be the end of an era.

When the Android-based Google TV project was first announced, we saw it as an exciting opportunity to revolutionize an industry. Android revolutionized what we can see and do on our phone screens with Android, and Google could leverage that same technology to revolutionize our experience with the largest, most beautiful, and centrally located screen in our house: the television.

android-tv

This could still happen. In fact, we think it WILL happen. But if it does, it’s not likely to bare the Google TV name. GigaOM is reporting that the product is being rebranded as Android TV.

Perhaps it should have been named Android TV all along. Perhaps Google pushed the entertainment strong arm too hard and thought they’d better be able to create an entire experience that included the Play Store, Google Music, and more. But Google TV was built on Android all along and the company has long made efforts to merge the codebase, initially Android-based but separate.

Some are suggesting this shows Google giving way to Chromecast as a better solution than Google TV or Android TV. I don’t believe that’s the case at all, although Android and Chrome clearly have some head butting in their future.

We’ve got no clue where this leaves Google TV, whether Android TV will become a new flagship, if Google has some huge TV related announcements that this news precedes, or if this is the slow disintegration of Google’s efforts into thin air.

One thing is for sure: it creates another interesting unknown about the future of a very viable tech innovation/revolution… and those are exactly the types of stories we love to follow.

What do you think? What will happen of Google TV? Of Android TV? And of Chrome and Chromecast?

  • br14nw

    It’ll rebrand under the Chrome name. That seems to be where they’re heading with everything else. It makes sense.

  • http://hughisaacs2.googlepages.com/ Hugh Isaacs II

    It should just become Android TV.

    It should have been this way from the start seeing as the Google TV name gave the media something to jab at.

    Under the Android branding umbrella despite how much theses TV devices sell they’re still of one of the millions of Android devices out there apart of this successful brand name.

    Google TV despite being Android isn’t looked at this way by the media, they count the sales numbers separately because of it, so it’s best branded as Android.

    My bet is that KitKat brings the features that Google TV has that mainstream Android still doesn’t (Web Apps in the app drawer, USB Mass Storage device support, WiFi remote support, IR blaster support, and HDMI input support) and Google just moves everything over to that one unified build.

  • Erik Smith

    I agree it should be re-branded as AndroidTV.

    When I tell people about my GoogleTV they don’t know or understand what I’m talking about. The best way to explain my GoogleTV is “It’s like Android on your TV” – Then they get it.

    I hope they don’t get rid of it or stop updating it though. Calling it AndroidTV seems like a good step forward. My Android phone, Chromebook Chrome apps and GoogleTV are a perfect combination.

    Now I’m just waiting for Google Fiber to to really get the most out of the experience!

    • Erik Smith

      And am also waiting for all the Chrome apps I use on my Windows PC to make it to ChromeOS!