The latest numbers show just how unsuccessful Google has been at reaching the coveted living room market.
Fewer than one million Google TV devices are installed in homes today, according to analyst group Xyologic. The group looked at data from the Android Market to see app download activity for Google TV products.
Of course, that doesn’t give a perfect picture of the number of units sold, but Google certainly isn’t sharing those figures and this is about as clear a picture as we’ll get.
Right now, if you want to buy a Google TV device…well, you’re actually kind of out of luck. There have only been two Google TV products released so far – the Logitech Revue set-top box, which was discontinued, and Sony’s Internet TV line, which is also not currently in production.
So the only way to buy a new Google TV product is to dig deep into online retailers with excess stock, or buy it used somewhere. Or you can wait, since there are a handful of new Google TV devices on their way to the market this year.
So far, though, Google TV has been an admitted flop. The main problem is that, for example, Sony’s Internet TV models were far more expensive than any of its other comparable HDTVs. And what you were getting for that premium was pretty bland.
In fact, there is some functionality available in other Inernet-connected TVs that Google TV doesn’t have. For example, Hulu Plus is available for Samsung’s smart TV platform, but not Google TV.
With Apple’s rumored TV set possibly hitting store shelves later this year, Google may never be able to recover. We’ll see what happens.
