By When Google announced they’d be launching Google TV, I expected that apps would be a huge part of it thanks to Android being the base technology. The first app announced outside of what Google demonstrated that I/O looks like it’ll be coming from the last competitor you thought you’d see targeting the technology: Boxee.
People have been wondering what’s so different between what Boxee provides and what Google TV provides (besides the obvious fact that Boxee doesn’t have official support to tie in with your premium television provider). The answer came from Andrew Kippen who spoke with Candler Blog about what they thought of Google TV and how they’d be adapting their model for the newest player in the game.
We obviously followed the [GoogleTV] announcement and the demo. We think that it would be great to see an open OS such as Android gain market share in the living room. It would enable users to download Boxee on their TV (we will be building an Android-based App) and start using it without the hassle of connecting their computer to the TV.
We have somewhat of a different view of browsing the web on TV. While it was a big part of the Google Demo we believe browsing the web as-is makes more sense on laptops and mobile devices (due to their personal nature, the screen size and the input device) than it does on TV. We look forward to playing with the TV and working with them to bringing Boxee to Android devices.
To clarify, he reiterated that this wasn’t the Boxee Remote app we heard about last month: this would be a full-fledged adaptation of Boxee specific for Google TV.
You read correctly. if there’s a TV platform running on TVs that can deliver a great Boxee experience then we want to be there. That means we’re looking at developing an Android App version of Boxee for the upcoming Google TV.
Now I can see why Rob is so excited about the future of this product and service. When Boxee first landed on Apple TV, users had a strong reason to install it: it brought more than just what you could download from iTunes. With Google TV, the reasoning isn’t as apparent, but it rings a loud bell about what Google has hoped to bring from Android since its beginnings: choice, freedom, and a whole lot of apps.
[via Gizmodo]
This is why open source and open standards is a win for the consumer. No matter what they say closed source and closed standards are nothing more than tools to allow companies to sit on their asses and not innovate. Its been used as a means to fabricate more value in commercial software than whats actually there. I’ll stop my rant before I get started.
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And I take back what I said about Google TV and a slow start. This may just turn out to be the catalyst for something much larger. If devs see opportunity and seize it then it won’t take long to gain a user base.
if you cant beat your competition. join them.
Even if GoogleTV flops the openness of Android will still be a huge bucketful of win.
Hopefully once GoogleTV is open sourced in 2011 you’ll see Android on a lot of TV’s, Blueray players, and other devices.
This is what happens when there is too much awesome.
How much is the Logitech box going to cost?
I haven’t seen much in the way of playing local content stored on your network built into Google TV (it focuses more on online content, search, etc). This would be a match made in heaven for me…I was planning on building a Boxee machine later this year but a marraige between Boxee’s local network access off content as well as it’s nice built in torrent system is a WELCOME addition :D
Google TV was going to be a day one purchase, now I am willing to sell my first born to have one now heh
I just want my Slingbox app for Android damn it! My Slingbox has been collecting dust for ages!!