Must read: Windows Phone outselling iOS, ultrabooks on the rise: Estonia does hardware differently

Topic: Hardware

Discover

Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

Summary: Google is paying vendors to include Android within their television sets - is this part of a long-term strategy?

Charlie Osborne

By for iGeneration |

According to Neowin, Google has struck deals with multiple suppliers to include Android software as part of their television products.

However, it is not by offering discounts or concessions. Instead, Google is paying vendors to include Android.

Vendors have multiple options for iOS systems to merge with their products -- Opera becoming the latest corporation to announce their emergence in to the market. However, with the enticing lure of Google slipping them a few extra dollars here and there, we can probably expect a higher percentile of Android sets in the market in the future.

(Source: Flickr)

The exact pricing terms that Google has agreed with vendors is not currently known, however, in an unstable consumer market, any additional revenue is something few manufacturers and vendors would turn down without consideration.

Lenovo is the first to announce the launch of a television running Android 4.0.

The market is certainly there to be taken advantage of, with more television sets being integrated with both wireless and iOS technology. However, if corporations like Google are going down the path of paying vendors to include their software, you have to question the platform itself.

Does Google consider this business strategy a way of securing longer-term investment in the industry, or is it due to other factors, such as salvaging a failing product?

If Google asserts its place within the Smart TV industry now, then Gen Y may expect that Google will compete for a dominant marketshare, which may in turn promote other devices that the Internet giant has interest in. Releasing a device or iOS out to the masses, as long as the quality is acceptable, will in turn create definition and trust within a brand.

Perhaps the strategy of paying vendors now is in order to ensure generations growing up with Smart TVs will automatically prefer the familiarity of Android in the future. I'd be interested to see what lies in store for Google and their interest in the system.

Related:

Topics: Hardware, Android, Google, Mobility

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

21 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    This article is so poorly constructed it's almost impossible to read. maybe the author typed it on her iDevice and Auto-Correct took over.
    KenD90027
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

      @KenD90027 Always love CES. Just found this great article for an outstanding solar gadget http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2012/01/06/solar-powered-kindle-cover-introduced-at-ces/
      sreeseche
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    Is it just me or does something not sound right about this. Weren't other companies accused of similar types of bribery to vendors to make them include their products found as anti-competitive tactics?
    bobiroc
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

      @bobiroc
      how is this anti-competitive? This software will compete with TVs without the software. Smart TVs are still a niche product, but I think that this is a good strategy by Google. Android has the potential to be everywhere.
      hoaxoner
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

        @hoaxoner <br><br>Just saying other companies have been accused of the same thing and got slammed by the tech/blog community and even sued for offering payment or heavy discounts to use their products with another company. I guess it depends how far Google takes it and what services they restrict outside of their own.
        bobiroc
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

        @Cylon Centurion
        Clearly you don't like Android. You do not have to buy one.

        @bobiroc
        I doubt very much that Google will be able to buy OEM's to the point of 90% of their products to be Android enabled.
        hoaxoner
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    Android iOS?
    slickjim
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

      @Peter Perry - I guess the author is predicting that Google and Android will merge or something? To the people that don't get the point and to be a lot more direct iOS is not Android. :)
      sys_engineer
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    google and its products are malware.... get rid of it from everywhere.
    owlnet
    Reply Vote

  • paying

    is italicized because...? microsoft is paying developers to write progs (mini programs, apps mini applications, it should be called prog store, not app store) for their phones and future tablets. is that different somehow? not saying either is good but i don't believe that these are the only two examples out there.
    oneleft
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

      @oneleft are you illiterate? "However, it is not by offering discounts or concessions. Instead, Google is paying vendors to include Android." Is Microsoft a vendor for TVs?
      pupkin_z
      Reply Vote

      • ooohhhhh

        @pupkin_z <br>what a retort! your's is truly a singular mind. are you illiterate! well done laddy! just SNAP!<br>now, you want to address my point? and,btw, no, ms is not a vendor of tv's. duh, are you stupid?<br>you see how easy that is? <br>ms is paying developesr to include wp7 and metro. google is paying vendors to include android. do try to keep up.
        oneleft
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    Google is looking really desperate here. It's almost like they're trying to beat some other popular fruit-logo company from entering and dominating this space, again, and offering a well integrated solution that serves all iOS devices (no fragmentation).
    dave95.
    Reply Vote

    • Just want to make sure I understand this

      @dave95.

      If a company enters a market after Apple, it is because they are copying Apple.

      If a company enters a market before Apple, it is because they are desperate and scared of Apple.

      Do I have that right?
      toddybottom
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

        @toddybottom


        Google is chasing after the big TV ad dollars. It's all about the ads with this company, which is fine that is their core makeup, ads and search. Over 90% of Google's revenue comes from online advertising delivered through search queries.

        Last thing they want is Apple disrupting their TV revenue plans with some rumored reinvention of AppleTV. How do you make sure Apple doesn't do that? Pay TV manufacturers to bundle and Force-feed the failing Google TV OS onto the market. Sounds like desperation and fear to me.
        dave95.
        Reply Vote

      • If the idea is so good, would not the manufacturers pay Google

        @toddybottom
        as opposed to Google paying the manufacturers?

        Would that not be similar to Goodyear paying Ford to use their tires?
        Tim Cook
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    While I love my Android phone (HTC EVO with Fresh OS), I'm concerned about the software update aspect of this. Currently, Android smartphone users have to wait with every software release/update from the service providers to put the new software through their QA process and release it (at least that's what they're saying that they're doing). From what we've been seeing, this can take quite a long time, or not at all due to their financial need to force the user to upgrade to (buy) a new phone by saying the new update isn't supported or just won't be released. I'm not willing to go through that with a TV that I expect to get at least 10 years of use from, or am I expecting too much?
    darthmongo
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

      @darthmongo I think that as-is the functionality will be so far above a regular TV that they will be well worth the money as-is. Future updates would only be gravy. Nice gravy though.
      symbolset
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

    That tells you something about Google. They have to pay people to use their products and services.
    Loverock Davidson-
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google lures vendors to install Android on TVs

      @Loverock Davidson-
      It's a good strategy - windows phone really needs to do the same but haven't figured it out yet.
      willyampz
      Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close