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Despite an optimistic launch, Google TV sales have proven less than wow-worthy

Consumers aren’t going as gaga for Google TV as manufacturers had hoped. In fact, people are flocking to return the smart TV set-top box.

Logitech International, maker of the Revue Google TV unit, announced that Revue profits were “slightly negative” last quarter as more people returned the device than purchased it.

In response, Logitech said it is going to drop the price of the Revue from $250 (a price cut from the original price of $300) to $100.

“We launched Revue with the expectation that it would generate significant sales growth in spite of a relatively high price point and the newness of both the smart TV category and the underlying platform,” Logitech chairman Guerrino De Luca said in a conference call on Thursday. “In hindsight, there are a number of things we should have done differently.”

Google TV is available through Logitech’s set-top box and a Sony HDTV and Blu-ray player. It provides access to the internet, live television programming, on-demand programming, recorded shows, pay TV, and online video clips. When Google announced Google TV last summer, the launch was surrounded with praise and positivity: smart TVs are the future of television; Google TV put Apple TV to shame. But Google TV was soon plagued by problems from major broadcast networks, preventing their content from being streamed by the set-top box and opposing a legislative proposal that would provide Google TV with easy access to cable content.

Google is not the only player in the space — there are plenty of ways to turn your TV into a web-connected powerhouse, but some are just more convenient or more fleshed out than others. For instance, LG has a similar smart TV upgraded set-top box, and Yahoo! and Samsung also have web-integrated TV offerings.

Hopefully, Logitech’s lowered price point will help spur consumer adoption of the Revue. Other set-top boxes, like the Roku box, fall in the $100 price range, a pricing level most people are better able to swallow than the close to $300 the Revue was selling at.

“There was a significant gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer,” De Luca said during the conference call.

It’s not totally clear why users were returning the unit. In Wired.com’s roundup of HDTV streamers, the Logitech Revue came out on top, despite its hefty price tag. However, Geekdad felt that the Boxee Box was easier to use for the average consumer. The Revue was said to be the more intriguing option “if you’re a tech-head.” De Luca posited that “Google TV has not yet fully delivered to its own promises.” And perhaps, in such a tight economy, customers just felt they weren’t getting their money’s worth.

“Google TV has a number of issues beyond the demand for Internet connected televisions. There is a lot that needs to be sorted out for this type of platform to succeed and the issues are centered around business models more than around technology,” says Van Baker, Research Vice President for Gartner.

Google plans to update the Google TV software later this year.

We probably all know at least one person who is bummed they missed out on the initial round of invites for Music Beta by Google. Well friends, you can be the bearer of good news for those troubled souls (who haven’t moved on to other online music pursuits, of course), as we discovered through a fellow music enthusiast. Members of the cloud-based service are now the proud owners of two invites handed down from the Goog, to be passed out only through a thorough application and interview process. Ok, not really… but perhaps you do have the power to make two of your friends, or soon-to-be friends, pretty happy. That is, until they realize how long it will take them to upload that music library they’ve been curating since 8th grade.

[Thanks, Ralph]

Google’s Music Beta gives users two invites, keys to the cloud for their best mates originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Powermat accompanies MyTouch 4G Slide at retail launch, or so the manufacturer says

Powermat accompanies MyTouch 4G Slide at retail launch, or so the manufacturer says originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nielsen data shows Android still reigns supreme in the land of operating systems, though Apple is owning the hardware manufacturing territory. Photo courtesy of Nielsen

As Android spreads across multiple devices, Google’s operating system continues to dominate on smartphones. A report released Thursday backs that up, showing that Android remains the top smartphone operating system in the United States.

But these numbers miss a key point: Android may be the leading platform on smartphones, but what about all the other iOS-powered devices out there that aren’t iPhones — the iPod Touch and the iPad?

Today’s research report, which was published by Nielsen, claims a 39-percent Android platform market share across the major smartphone manufacturers, while Apple’s iPhone operating system claims a 28 percent stake. The results show data from smartphone purchases occurring during the second quarter of 2011 in the U.S.

But therein lies the huge blind spot in Nielsen’s data measurement: Apple sold over 20 million iPhones over the last quarter, but add iPads and iPod Touch devices to that, and the number bumps up to nearly 37 million iOS devices. In three months.

Technology research firms such as Nielsen regularly publish market share analysis to measure which companies are leading the industry. In mobile, Google and Apple are consistently neck-to-neck in market share reports, but it’s questionable why research firms continue to leave tablets and all-in-one portables like the iPod Touch out of the mobile picture.

Which, considering recent reports, may be a big mistake. For instance, GoGo — an in-flight Wi-Fi service provider that works with Virgin America airlines — told AllThingsDigital that while iPhones make up two thirds of wireless devices connected to its in-flight services, iPod Touch devices account for another 20 percent. That’s even higher than the number of Android devices used to access the network (only 12 percent).

Another tidbit to consider: Despite Android’s platform dominance in the smartphone space, over 80 percent of Wired.com’s mobile traffic comes from iOS-based devices. That includes the iPad, iPod Touch and the iPhone. The iPad and iPod Touch aren’t smartphones, but they run the same operating system as the iPhone.

It highlights a specific problem in surveys like Nielsen’s: Measurement criterion. If we’re measuring a platform’s total market share, homing in on “smartphones” specifically rather than mobile devices gives a skewed representation of total platform penetration. It would be a fairer analysis to count all the tablets,smartphones, and all-in-one portables (i.e., the iPod Touch) powered by Android and iOS and comparing those side by side.

Jim Dalrymple of The Loop gives an apt analogy on the matter in an April blog post:

That would be like comparing one model of Mercedes against all cars that GM makes and saying the Mercedes is losing. It just doesn’t make any sense. You can’t have it both ways. You either have to compare hardware devices or operating systems, you can’t mix and match.

A Nielsen spokesman acquiesced when we made the point mentioned above, but countered with an emphasis on how smartphones are one of the more important metrics to watch.

“Smartphones are really driving a lot of the innovation around the different platforms right now,” Nielsen spokesman Don Kellogg said in an interview. “When you look at the smartphone manufacturer share, it’s still very small compared to Apple or even RIM.”

That point highlights the other very important part of the survey. While Android may or may not reign in the smartphone realm, Apple leads the pack as the top smartphone manufacturer with its 28-percent share. RIM, which also owns both its software and hardware, is second in command with 20 percent. HTC also accounts for 20 percent of the hardware market, when taking into account both its Android phone and its Microsoft OS-powered devices.

Which are numbers that may ultimately matter more than platform penetration.

“These things matter from the perspective of securing the deepest level of customer loyalty,” Forrester analyst Charles Golvin told Wired.com. “Because of their vertical integration Apple gets both loyalty components and cements a deeper customer relationship as a result.”