I try to avoid software issues in these columns, but sometimes that big Android from Mountain View demands attention, even from the hardware side.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

As is well known, Google’s Android OS is transforming the smartphone world, and has even motivated Apple to take legal action to defend the hegemony of its iPhone. But Android is already being used in larger-format display-centric devices, including the Barnes & Noble Nook eBook reader, Spring Design’s about-to-be-introduced Alex, and the Notion Ink mini-tablet PC with a display by Pixel Qi.

But Google also has its sights set on television, and is working with Intel and Sony to bring fully functional Web browsing, plus video and movie access to TVs and set-top boxes (STBs), Nick Bilton reported in today’s New York Times Business Day. The platform would also download and run applications such as games.

The triumvirate is developing a platform they call Google TV, according to anonymous sources, which would be based on the Android OS and use a version of Google’s Chrome Web browser. The OS would run on Intel’s Atom microprocessor, which is currently the dominant chip in Netbooks. Logitech is said to be developing a remote control with a miniature keyboard for the platform.

Assuming that people want to do social networking and Web searching on their TV sets (which is not a trivial assumption), this initiative would appear to be a win-win for the team members. Google gets to extend its search-and-advertising paradigm to huge untapped family of devices. Intel gets to put its sophisticated microprocessors into a huge untapped family of devices. And Sony gets a chance to restore some of its tarnished reputation as a television innovator.

One source said STBs might appear as early as this summer.

All of this is unofficial, and the team members are not commenting. In a clever effort to indirectly confirm some of what was revealed anonymously, Bilton checked employment ads at Intel and Logitech. "Intel, for example," wrote Bilton, "has listed jobs for senior application engineers with Android programming experience who can help extend Intel’s technology ‘from PC screen to mobile screen and TV screen.’" And Logitech has several listings for Android developers, including an embedded software engineer with experience developing "audio and video products based on the Android platform."

What could go wrong with this program? First, we don’t know if the team will copy the walled-garden, widget-based IPTV approach, which is the model currently being rolled out by TV makers, or, will they provide open web access to get to any content? Second, Google TV STBs would be far more capable than current STBs, and considerably more expensive. Some recent streaming-video boxes from the likes of Boxee and Roku bracket the $100 mark, while an Atom-based box could cost twice as much - so what is the value proposition?

Would that price differential matter? If people accept the PC / Web-browsing model for TV to begin with, the answer is no. People don’t hesitate to spend that differential and more to upgrade a cell phone to a smart phone, and the increase in functionality is comparable. In the case of Google TV, you could even imagine cutting back to a more basic cable plan, in which case the box could pay for itself in a few months.

This is mostly speculation as we don’t know what will really be offered. But Google is committed to open platforms, so we may not be too far off base. In the meantime, we’ll be watching for Google TV products from Sony this year. Sony gets a head start in this foot race, but if the model looks promising, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba and Vizio won’t be far behind.