In partnership with Intel, Sony, and Logitech, Google officially unveiled Google TV at its Google I/O conference today – integrated devices seamlessly synchronized using the Internet. Smooth! Very smooth!
And No! Google is not going to replace your cable or satellite box, but work alongside it. The goal is to be able to view web content and television content side-by-side from the same interface.
Where does that leave Apple?
The gloves are off. And this is not a regular fight. Google is hitting Apple with Adobe and the parade of CEO partners that came to the Keynote and Apple, true to itself, will itself themselves alone (for now). But let’s not forget that Apple is still the innovator here. They were there first with the iPhone, first with Apple TV and first with the iPad (Google will soon make it’s own tablet with Verizon). Apple is also still first on usability. I can’t picture my mother using all the amazing things we saw today but she will gladly use her iPhone any time of the day. And guess what? She watches the most TV in the house.
The gloves are off but the fight is only just beginning
The times ahead will be soap opera times. Alliances are bound to be broken, new ones are bound to be made, old enemies will become good friends and old friends will become the most fierce enemies. Let me showcase a scenario that would illustrate this:
It is clear, that Google has become a competitor of both Microsoft (with Chrome OS) and Apple. Interestingly, Microsoft is becoming less and less of a threat to Apple. The Mac operating system itself and Mac computers are not Apple’s first stream of revenue. Imagine an alliance between Microsoft and Apple – you can giggle at it now, but if Google start eating up their market share and push them to the corner they might just do that. And when that day comes – if it ever comes – Google better be – as I pointed out yesterday – better at EVERYTHING. The tricky thing with an open platform will be the guaranteeing the security and the stability of the system. If there is as much as one single faux pas, users will change allegiance. Google beware.
So, I guess we should be able now to download software on our Android phone and take it anywhere: our TV, our PC, our tablet? – all without having to synchronize between devices. I am looking forward to the world of innovation that Chrome is going to bring about.
What’s next? Let me guess….hmmm…. Google Satellite TV maybe?
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