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Why on earth is Google TV separate from Android? I'm not sure I understand the question, GoogleTV is an application layer on top of Android that addresses the

Why on earth is Google TV separate from Android? I'm not sure I understand the question, GoogleTV is an application layer on top of Android that addresses the TV. Its still Android underneath and you can still build Android apps for it. I can't answer the UK pricing model but in the US you can get the Vizio Co-Star for $99. All the OTT Boxes have come to Roku's realization that these boxes have to be under $100 so now you've got GoogleTV and Boxee at the $99 price point. Why is nobody attacking this space with any gusto? Boxee, Roku, Apple TV, Google TV, YouView, Windows MCE and various no-hope proprietary platforms There's a lot of folks attacking this space, most of them the CE providers themselves who don't see the need to use a 3rd party platform Samsung - you'll never build a platform anyone wants to build on This isn't true. I say this as someone who builds apps for these platforms this space is crazy busy. Also while it looks like it from the outside, LG/Samsung/Panasonic/Boxee's "App Platforms" are really just HTML browsers. They're not super secret propietary browser they're all pretty modern webkit implementations (Samsung's is Webkit as of 2012) and you can pretty much write a single app that runs on most of these "proprietary platforms" with very little differences between platforms. There's actually a "Smart TV Alliance" with some CE providers trying to standardize the functionality that doesn't map to CE-HTML or another spec (usually access to Hardware API's like channel changes or volume). http://www.smarttv-alliance.org/ http://www.smarttv-alliance.org/

andybak 14y ago
> Why on earth is Google TV separate from Android? > I'm not sure I understand the question, GoogleTV is an application layer on top of Android that addresses the TV. Its still Android underneath and you can still build Android apps for it. Then why can't I run it on any Android device with a HDMI socket? I'd have several Google TVs already if that was possible. There's seems to be a more restricted culture around Google TV. The source code isn't available so there's no no-name boxes from small OEMs to stir up the low-end of the market. (Although you could argue that they can stick to vanilla Android but that won't help the platform reach or brand-recognition of Google TV) I agree about the price-point but who apart from Vizio is producing a $99 box? And as I said - the only device available in the UK is the £200 ($320) Sony box. Didn't know about the Smart TV Alliance. The only smart TV I played with was a Samsung TV about a year ago and that was sluggish and underpowered. However: "Smart TV Alliance supported products are: Philips Smart TVs LG Smart TVs " That's not looking like an ecosystem. Is it likely to grow beyond those two? How about the small companies? Where are the cheap compatible set-top boxes? If you can make a half-decent Android tablet for $70 then we should be seeing one of these platforms taking off. [Also - What does 'CE' stand for?]
- ben1040 14y ago
  >Also - What does 'CE' stand for? "Consumer Electronics."
- saurik 14y ago
  > Then why can't I run it on any Android device with a HDMI socket? I'd have several Google TVs already if that was possible. A simple answer for this is "it is compiled for x86, as the reference platform for a Google TV is an Intel CE4100" (and thereby, if you stole the software off of an existing unit, you would not be able to run it on the numerous ARM Android devices that are out there). > There's seems to be a more restricted culture around Google TV. The source code isn't available so there's no no-name boxes from small OEMs to stir up the low-end of the market. This, however, is the real issue underlying your complaints. As the GoogleTV at some level relies on not pissing off content providers whether directly or indirectly (if nothing else, to keep it from being used to do DHCP stripping, but it obviously goes much deeper than that), it is going to be a closed platform; that's simply the game you have to play to be in this space.
  - andybak 14y ago
    > A simple answer for this is "it is compiled for x86, as the reference platform for a Google TV is an Intel CE4100" I thought they were switching to ARM or has that not happened yet? > As the GoogleTV at some level relies on not pissing off content providers Once again they hold back an entire industry to prevent piracy whilst utterly failing to do so by any measure.
    - saurik 14y ago
      > I thought they were switching to ARM or has that not happened yet? This seems to have actually already happened (I didn't actually get any of the new hardware released after this year's Google I/O; I was mostly interested in this the prior year, when it seemed like it might be popular). You probably then actually can just run it on another device, but it would involve stealing the software off of an existing unit.
  - deleted 14y ago

andybak 14y ago

> Why on earth is Google TV separate from Android? > I'm not sure I understand the question, GoogleTV is an application layer on top of Android that addresses the TV. Its still Android underneath and you can still build Android apps for it. Then why can't I run it on any Android device with a HDMI socket? I'd have several Google TVs already if that was possible. There's seems to be a more restricted culture around Google TV. The source code isn't available so there's no no-name boxes from small OEMs to stir up the low-end of the market. (Although you could argue that they can stick to vanilla Android but that won't help the platform reach or brand-recognition of Google TV) I agree about the price-point but who apart from Vizio is producing a $99 box? And as I said - the only device available in the UK is the £200 ($320) Sony box. Didn't know about the Smart TV Alliance. The only smart TV I played with was a Samsung TV about a year ago and that was sluggish and underpowered. However: "Smart TV Alliance supported products are: Philips Smart TVs LG Smart TVs " That's not looking like an ecosystem. Is it likely to grow beyond those two? How about the small companies? Where are the cheap compatible set-top boxes? If you can make a half-decent Android tablet for $70 then we should be seeing one of these platforms taking off. [Also - What does 'CE' stand for?]

ben1040 14y ago
>Also - What does 'CE' stand for? "Consumer Electronics."
saurik 14y ago
> Then why can't I run it on any Android device with a HDMI socket? I'd have several Google TVs already if that was possible. A simple answer for this is "it is compiled for x86, as the reference platform for a Google TV is an Intel CE4100" (and thereby, if you stole the software off of an existing unit, you would not be able to run it on the numerous ARM Android devices that are out there). > There's seems to be a more restricted culture around Google TV. The source code isn't available so there's no no-name boxes from small OEMs to stir up the low-end of the market. This, however, is the real issue underlying your complaints. As the GoogleTV at some level relies on not pissing off content providers whether directly or indirectly (if nothing else, to keep it from being used to do DHCP stripping, but it obviously goes much deeper than that), it is going to be a closed platform; that's simply the game you have to play to be in this space.
- andybak 14y ago
  > A simple answer for this is "it is compiled for x86, as the reference platform for a Google TV is an Intel CE4100" I thought they were switching to ARM or has that not happened yet? > As the GoogleTV at some level relies on not pissing off content providers Once again they hold back an entire industry to prevent piracy whilst utterly failing to do so by any measure.
  - saurik 14y ago
    > I thought they were switching to ARM or has that not happened yet? This seems to have actually already happened (I didn't actually get any of the new hardware released after this year's Google I/O; I was mostly interested in this the prior year, when it seemed like it might be popular). You probably then actually can just run it on another device, but it would involve stealing the software off of an existing unit.
- deleted 14y ago