Ahead of the imminent release of Google TV 2.0 software, based mobile operating system Android Honeycomb, the Googleplex has begun reaching out to existing customers. As such, what struck me about el Goog’s messaging is that it seems to take something of an apologetic tone setting only modest expectations. Given lackluster sales of the poorly reviewed Google TV experience, perhaps that’s a safer approach than shouting from the rooftops. Regardless, I’d still say Google needs some assistance in the marketing department. Perhaps the best sound bite stems from the new Android Market section:
Android developers can now bring existing mobile apps or entirely new ones to TV. Initially, the number of apps won’t be large – for example, apps requiring a touch screen, GPS, or telephony won’t show up – but 50 developers have seeded the Market with some cool and useful apps for the TV. We’re excited to see the number of apps grow.
“But 50” is apologetic yet, ironically, the number dwarfs Apple TV app availability. Then again, as we’ve learned with Roku, quantity doesn’t equate to quality. And given our brief Google TV 2.0 hands on, the initial crop of Android Market TV apps leaves something to be desired with only a few diamonds in this rough.
Typically, I might make a comparison to Apple’s successful marketing… yet even they’ve had a hard time cracking the Internet-connected TV space, for years referring to aTV as merely a hobby. But Google’s language and concepts appear geared towards us techies. To reach mass market appeal (and sales) they both need to produce and market in simple terms on what Google TV offers, versus what they don’t.
Some deployment nuggets from Google’s email blast:
We’re excited to send you this advance notice about a number of software improvements that will soon be coming to your device through an automatic update. The update is rolling out over the next few weeks. When you see a dialogue box on your TV saying “update available,” feel free to click “update now,” otherwise you can postpone the update by a few hours by clicking “not now” (handy if you’re in the middle of watching a movie). Once the update has downloaded, just follow the on-screen instructions.
Interestingly, it looks like Google had hoped to start rolling out the new software about a week ago:
If you have not yet updated to the version of Google TV first made available on October 25, 2011
Ah well, while Google missed their summer release window the new app Market will be less than a year late. Compared to say the still missing in action DirecTV TiVo.