Featured: Is Google TV doomed? Don't count it out just yet.

John Biggs at TechCrunch posted a piece last night about the coming demise that he sees for Google TV, citing the lack of any Google TV goodness in either of the Google I/O keynotes. I get the concern for Google TV, but I think there’s a bigger picture here than John is seeing.

Google TV didn’t just stumble out of the gate, it tripped over the starting line and fell flat on its face. Logitech gave it up and slashed $200 from the price of the Revue, and Sony TVs powered by Google TV started to disappear from store shelves quickly. No that they were selling fast, retailers like Microcenter dropped them. Things were then, and are still quite bleak.

But all hope is not lost.

One of the biggest issues facing Google TV adoption in the average consumer’s home has always been price. Google is famous (infamous?) for bringing the freetards to the smartphone space. You know, those people that think that every app should be free, and ad free to boot. This is the key demographic for the Google TV: Android users.

How Logitech or Sony either one expected to get a group of people that refuses to pay a buck for Angry Birds, but that bitches incessantly about the ads displayed to drop $300+ on a companion box for their TV is beyond my comprehension. Logitech sold out of Revues not long after they dropped the price to $99.

That’s where Vizio comes in. Where Logitech took a bath on the Revue at $99, Vizio is poised to be the breakout success that Google TV needs with their Vizio Co-Star Google TV streamer. And at the same price point. Logitech over-engineered their Revue boxes and drove the price sky high. Vizio has made their name by delivering an insanely good product at a price that is really hard to beat, and that’s what they are doing with Google TV.

Google didn’t mention Google TV in the I/O keynotes because there isn’t anything groundbreaking to talk about at this point. Delivering an ICS update to the Google TV at this point would really only serve to piss off a lot of Revue owners, because Logitech has already said that the Revue won’t be updated to ICS when Google makes it available. Oh. but wait, did Logitech confirm ICS for the Google TV?

ICS will be coming to the Google TV, and likely later this fall. Announcing it now accomplishes nothing, and likely turns a lot of Revue owners (myself included) away from the new star of the Google TV world, the Vizio Co-Star.

Google has screwed around with the Google TV platform for two years, there’s no rush to take the low road.

Source: TechCrunch