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No Set-Top TV Device Market Domination For Google
itwbennett writes "According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, returns of the Logitech Revue (Google's set-top box) exceeded sales in the first quarter. Explaining why sales were so poor, Logitech Chairman Guerrino De Luca went way out on a limb, saying: 'There was a significant gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer.' So significant that 'Logitech must take a $34 million charge in the first quarter, which more than comprises the company's Q1 net loss of $30 million,' writes blogger Chris Nerney. 'In other words, Google TV is pushing Logitech into the red!'"
duh.. it was worthless
It was a logitech device.
Not a google device.
And i learned a LONG time ago not to buy anything more complex than a mouse from logitech. And even that is hit or miss on quality.
I haven't used it so can't say how much streaming options it has but being new and late to the game they should put it at 200 or even 150. to try to fight popcorn hour and boxee box that have been out for a while
$78 Roku box with a ton of channels, and new ones being added all the time; or Logitech Revue With Google TV for $199.00 and a more controlled selection. Easy choice...
I predict that google's going to have a much tougher time finding hardware providers the next time they want to ship a half-baked idea like that.
The more significant concern should be how complicated the device is. The Logitech Revue has the hallmarks of being rushed to market by a furiously masterbating manager in the corner of an office somewhere, refusing to listen to anything anyone is saying.
Just look at the Revue website and find anywhere mentioning how simple or easy the device is to use, no just a very daunting picture of a gargantuan remote that is some nerd's wet dream.
A lot of effort has been put into the product launch, the Logitech website is larger than any other product they ship and it also extends onto the support side. It is nice to see that they have a series of support videos until you actually view one. Oh dear. I'm wincing at these poor actors having to drive through an overly technical and obtuse script which spends far too much time discussing "HDMI capable AV systems" and optional components which only serve to make it look more complicated than it needs to be.
No respect for the french. Still !!
Wait. Is Canada under french or british rule toady ??
I guess when Google can't destroy the business plan of another company by giving away a competing product for free then they revert to other methods.
According to the Logitech web site, the thing needs both an Ethernet connection to the outside world, and "Cable or Satellite set top box with HDMI out". What does it need a video input for? Over the air digital TV plus streaming over the Internet for anything else should suffice. None of the other video-over-the-Internet boxes seem to need that.
DOES NOT COMPUTE.
Gee, a PC like device that costs about as much as a basic function PC, but doesn't have the power for running on-line gaming and can't even watch Hulu or most network programs. And the consumer somehow preceived it wasn't worth the price? Imagine that! Who wouldn't want to buy this and hook it up to their TV rather than use the cash for a real multi-media PC?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It seems like Google's taken it upon itself to wage war against Apple, M$, Facebook et alia on a lot of fronts.
As a little guy, I appreciate what Google's doing because it reduces the would-be monopoly power of the others. Google's thinking, insofar as I can ascertain, is: A closed monopolized tech environment will make it difficult for Google's open Internet approach of serving up free stuff and putting ads on it. Which is great.
But the question is: Can they succeed in holding the line on all these fronts?
Consider:
* A huge% of people want to buy the iPhone5 sight unseen
* No Android tablets are a match for
* No one seems to be able to come up with hardware better than last year's iPhone
* The Nortel patents were lost to an Apple-funded cartel, and they may be used to beat up on Android makers
* Facebook competes for being the #1 website, and wins in the amount of time people spend on it
* Nokia was lost to the dark $ide.
* The anti-WebM patents cartel, announced yesterday.
* Apple has scary amounts of money, only a little bit less than Ben Bernanke
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
It seem likely a few saps bought them the previous quarter and finally got around to returning them.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
the key concept is for the quarter. It seem likely a few saps bought them the previous quarter and finally got around to returning them.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
and/or Roku. It is not even close to either.
GoogleTV is garbage with almost negligible support and features. It is nothing more than a logo.
Logitech bet the house on a crappy cards and lost. Now they are paying the price.
The problem is that all Google products are nothing but rushed out pre-beta quality software.
Even today, Android is sluggish. Honeycomb is pretty much unstable garbage with nothing to show. GoogleTV is a dead product and Google+ is a Facebook wannabe with a worst privacy policy.
In other words, Google produces nothing but pre-beta software which are nothing more than clones of other products. Nothing original, only copycats.
It is wrong to be french.
There are lots of devices that do the same thing going for significantly less than a hundred.
Also, it's puzzling that Google cooperated with the content blocking schemes. They should have just set the browser ID to Internet Explorer and told the networks to go fuck themselves.
With Google's acquisition of sageTV, it was speculated that SageTV would either become or become part of a revised platform for GoogleTV. What will happen to this fine company? Their DVR software was fantastic, and their "media extender" hardware was very useful. Many companies that get assimilated by Google become integral parts of a greater whole. But what will happen here? I seriously doubt that Google will shelve the set-top box concept. They may transform GoogleTV into something different, but I doubt they'll abandon it.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
So a bunch of people bought them in the quarter preceding the first quarter? That seems unlikely :-)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Now granted the one I got to play with was a pre-public release a developer at my friends company was given that he setup in the company's theator room... but the remote was ugly and looked like a label maker mated with an Xbox 360 remote. I don't think it had any more functionality than the logictech, but I believe its price tag was $100 *more* than the logictech unit
they still have $120.00 keyboards and $90.00 rats they can sell.
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If instead a keyboard they use a tablet
...then they won't even need a set-top box, as they could just do everything on the tablet and connect it to the TV with the tablet's mini-HDMI output.
Gee, a PC like device that costs about as much as a basic function PC
But "a basic function PC" comes in a much bigger case and lacks any sort of SDTV-compatible output without an obscure VGA-to-TV scan converter.
Who wouldn't want to buy this and hook it up to their TV rather than use the cash for a real multi-media PC?
People who don't want a big, ugly, noisy tower in the living room. People who don't know how to build a small-form-factor PC from parts. People who have an SDTV and don't know that scan converters exist. People who have the mental set that PCs are for the desk and TVs are for the living room and never the twain shall meet. In other words, the majority. I've been told that statistically nobody sets up an HTPC.
I don't know about your setup but if I connected my tablet to my TV, I'd have a hard time using my tablet as a remote while sitting on my couch.
Not to mention the whole multi-tasking issue. How many tablets have the horsepower to display HD streaming content to the TV while browsing the web? Or, if one of my kids is playing angry birds on the tablet, I have to interupt everytime I want to change the channel.
First quarter refers to time of year, not first quarter in which it was released.
I think I read elsewhere the CEO is "stepping down". AKA being fired.
Seriously, didn't this product look like a total failure the moment it was announced. I am sure we had a story on the announcement, and I am sure most of stated: WTF??? This was the most obvious DOA product since the JooJoo.
It is bad enough to launch an obvious stinker but it sounds like they also put so much money behind it as to put the company in jeopardy. Seriously how out of touch and clueless was the CEO.
CEO get 7 figure salaries for what again??
I was sorely disappointed in the device. I was expecting maybe too much.
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If they had used ARM in the first place, the price who have been significantly cheaper. But instead they went with expensive Intel Atom silicon.
So if I got a GTV at $99 now, it will be able to be upgraded to Honeycomb when it comes out? It was a nonstarter at 250 for something with unknown value, but I’d consider it at 99. Can I play media that is on my network via the GoogleTV, too?
You know what I want out of GoogleTV?
I want the media center capabilities of a Boxee or XBMC. I want the android market and internet prowess and ability to browse with a full-on browser a la the current GoogleTV.
And I want it in a box with a Cablecard where I can hook up an external or NAS drive and use it for a DVR. Or at least an OTA tuner. Android DVR app anyone?
*That* I would pay $250 for. A living room Youtube player? No.
I've bought a few of these. Many family members have them. Here's the basic pro/cons:
Pros:
Cons:
TL;DR:
It's great for non-techies. Once the platform is cracked, or Google Market is added to it, it will be the _next_ XBMC platform ( or better ).The hardware is high powered, cool running, and soundless. Plus it has full HDMI security keys in it, so it can function as a HDMI repeater which very few open XBMC like devices can do.
Buy two for the grandparents when it comes down in price, and plug in either the HD webcam ( expensive) or any crappy USB web-cam ( cheap ). And you'll be a hero.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Sony's has a blu-ray player, a smaller keyboard/remote, and is more expensive. Not sure about the other hardware specs like CPU/RAM and refresh rate.
I've read on the Revue forums that the Sony product is better in dealing with audio systems (because Revue apparently forces all audio inputs to a 5.1 output, whereas the Sony passes through whatever audio input format it gets).
Overall, I really like the idea of an android-based googletv instead of relying on each manufacturers own "smart TV" product with its own balkanized app store (like LG, etc.).
Go into the PC section of your local Walmart, and there'll probably be an Xbox 360-sized Acer Aspire. Why these aren't advertised more I have no clue.
SDTV? This is 2011. What rock have you been hiding under?
The same rock that people who buy replacement TVs at pawn shops and thrift stores hide under. People replace TVs when they break, and they buy "content boxes" (cable boxes, DVD players, game consoles, etc.) that are compatible with their current TV.
The problem with the Logitech Revue is that you could buy a low profile PC for about the same price.
The problem with a low-profile PC is that their manufacturers haven't been promoting them to the public. Average people hear "desktop computer" and think of a typical full-size ATX case (8" by 20" by 20"), not the Xbox 360-sized case of a Gateway SX or the practically GameCube-sized case of a Dell Zino.
Sounds like a classic Apple fanboy arguing against a 10 year old view of the competition.
People still use a PC operating system that will be 10 years old at the end of this year.
Actually according to Nielson, the lion's share of people that do "Internet streaming" of content do it from a PC.
What does Nielsen say about the median monitor size used with PC streaming video?
The Wii still doesn't support hi-def video, so it's not great for media.
I agree here, the ARM processor has excelled nicely in this arena.
Well, this arena along with cell phones.
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If it's anything like android phones, every google tv would need an app written specifically for it...
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So I shouldn't just hook up one tabletj's HDMI out to the television. Rather I should hook one up for every member of the family leading to a veritable hydra of devices attached to 50 foot cables all over the living room. If that's the sort of thing that the /typical/ /. commenter is wont to do, I don't think that I'm in the pool of typical /. commenters.
Moreover, you didn't address the multi-tasking concern. How many tablets have the horsepower to spit out streamed HD video /and/ browse the web at the same time?
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