After Google TV’s dismal launch (customers are returning more units than they’re buying), Time’s Jared Newman looks ahead:
This isn’t the end of Google TV. Google plans to revamp the software this summer with an interface based on Android Honeycomb, with access to the Android Market. But to make Google TV a living room powerhouse, Google and its hardware partners need to learn a few lessons from the first generation’s flop…
The bigger problem is that there isn’t one solution out there that does enough to stand on its own. My Apple TV hasn’t prevented me from juggling two or three remotes from the couch, and I pay for dozens of cable channels that I will never watch to get the few that I will. Google TV 1.0 tried to cobble together a browser-based solution that would siphon streaming content from the networks’ sites, but one by one they were shut down.