We normally do not speculate or comment on rumours, however the alleged tie up between Intel, Sony and Google on establishing a platform on Android for delivering web applications and content on Internet connected televisions is worth exploring.
The broadcasting, telecommunications and consumer electronics industry have tried to address this market for years now, by discussing and developing standards in forums and associations such as the ITU-T, Open IPTV Forum, ATIS, EBU, and the CEA. Little actual progress has been made for various reasons, amongst other due to industry politics, patent positioning and the need for control over future specifications. Having monitored this situation for years we have warned the industry repeatedly that unless it can find common grounds Google could change the game with a 'Google TV' service as we have called it, by creating a common interface for video and web applications on top of Android for televisions.
This seems now to be happening.
Google has picked interesting industry partners, if the speculations are true; Intel and Sony.
Intel
Intel has courted the consumer electronics industry over the past few years by partnering with Yahoo to deliver the Yahoo widget channel for televisions. The backdrop for this arrangement was that Yahoo would provide the framework, or the widget platform, while intel would provide the chipset (CE processor). This became no great success, and Yahoo also made its SDK available for non-Intel processors. This may have dwindled Intel's commitment to the Yahoo Widget programme. Also, given the lacklustre performance at Yahoo and high management turn over in recent years, Intel may have decided it would need new partners. Enter Android-backer and fellow Linux evangelist Google.
Prior to the CE processor Intel also tried to enter the living room space via the PC OEM channel, with marketing support and its now defunct Intel Viiv platform. This failed to grab any market attention, just as similar attempts from Microsoft (Media centre OS) and chip rival AMD (AMD Live) did.
Where does this leave Meagoo?
As mentioned, Intel is a fellow Linux evangelist. However, it recently decided to merge its Linux Moblin distribution with Nokia developed Maemo, creating Maegoo. Maegoo in return is a competitor to Google's Android as both can be used to power mobile phones and other consumer devices. Although Google TV is aimed at the set top box/TV market, and not mobile phones, it would surprising if Maegoo cannot be adopted for the same market too. We wonder how Nokia will react.
Sony
Sony is a peculiar partner in some ways. Sony is one of the founding members of the Open IPTV Forum, a forum that aims to standardise how services delivered over the internet can be accessed on consumer electronics devices, such as televisions. We are sceptics to the viability of Open IPTV Forum, which is backed up with our annual operator research reports on the service delivery platform markets in Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Operators are generally not planning on implementing Open IPTV Forum specifications. If it is correct that Sony is part of this push for Android for televisions, it will be of high interest to see how this will impact or integrate with the wider range of Sony products and services (Playstation Network, XMB interface, in-house operating systems, Sony Life????, Bravia Video Link/Internet TV??). Android, after all, does not play a crucial role at Sony, unlike at Motorola or HTC.
Sony is pushing the 'Sony United' mantra. This could mean that Sony is exploring how it can simplify its OS platforms across consumer devices, but also on how it can use Playstation Network as a backend to Google TV (to sell multimedia content) independently of the hardware provider.
Competitive pressure is now the telecommunications standards bodies?
The ITU-T, Open IPTV Forum and HBBTV (Hybrid Broadband Broadband TV) Forums all vie for how Internet services and video can be delivered on televisions and other consumer products. HBBTV has some traction amongst broadcasters in Europe, while ITU-T IPTV specifications are deployed in Japan, whereas in Singapore there is a big public policy debate (disclaimer that we have been involved in) on standardisation of IPTV to enable multi-platform access.
These forums may now have lost their window of opportunity due to political infighting, patent positioning (for example Open IPTV Forum is partly based on IMS, which has strong tie-ins with Ericsson's proprietary products and services), poor marketing and industry cooperation (ITU-T, which focuses more on winning support from government entities than from individual operators as well as lacking multi-level support from organizations, and has a weak position across the globe, and lacks freeish SDKs for developers which deters developer support) or from narrow industry views (HBBTV, which essentially hands the control of the Internet experience on consumer electronics over to manufacturers since vendors using HBBTV specifications become the gate keepers to the internet).
As we have warned operators, government, and vendors; unless the industry understand these issues and try to stop controlling patents, the user or the internet, Google could race ahead and launch a Google TV service that standardises the input interfaces for web applications and content services, and standardises the output and APIs for vendors. Google's business model is to advertisement, controlling meta data and data analysis, and if successful all these elegant solutions developed by technical committees by the above mentioned standard bodies become obsolete.
If Google TV becomes a reality the onus will be on broadcasters, vendors and operators on how this will impact their products and services. We will, if announced, track Google TV in our operator research programmes, along with HBBTV, Open IPTV Forum ITU-T IPTV and others. The race will then be on between the Open internet and the traditionally closed telecommunications industry. Normally the Open internet wins, and will this be the case again? We will see......
