Google TV will be announced 2 days from now, and Google is already giving us teasers about what Google TV is all about. And it’s looking pretty sweet so far. In fact, much better than I thought.
Most of Google’s products either have a decent interface because they are just very simple, or an interface that is too complicated, and plain bad (Wave, Android 1.0, Gmail Contacts, etc). But Google TV’s interface not only looks very intuitive (more so than Boxee) but it’s also very polished, making it the best set top box interface I’ve seen.
It also comes with a lot of content from Netflix and Amazon Video to TSB, Cartoon Network, CNBC, HBO Go, NBA, and even Pandora and Twitter. And there will be more to come, especially once it takes off and more TV and set top box manufacturers start supporting Google TV. And why wouldn’t they? It’s the best out there and it costs them nothing. Plus, people seem to love it already.
One of the best features is that it has access to the Android Market, which right now might not mean much, but soon it will. First of all you could have apps built by developers that do video calling. Or games that could be played like a console game, granted virtual gamepads are available, or if Google adds support for some 3rd party real gamepads.
All of the sudden even $300 seems worth it for this product, although I still wish Logitech would make it cheaper, but I think they tried to make it a premium product because they knew Google has the best interface and OS for this. That’s too bad, but hopefully cheaper competitors will appear soon, too, especially when it will be available for ARM chips, too. I think Intel Atom makes it too expensive, and also all those extra keyboards and pads from Logitech add to the cost.
I don’t see any reason why a Google TV box couldn’t be priced at even $99, or at least under $200.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDeX_oIfEeQ&feature=player_embedded
[Via Gizmodo]