Boxee’s Avner Ronen Says Google TV is Good For IPTV
According to NewTeeVee Avner Ronen of Boxee says
“If Android finds its way onto TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices, that’s a great opportunity for us,” That’s because, by creating a way for Boxee to run on Android-enabled devices, Google could actually make it easier for the startup to reach its consumer base through the Android app store."
This is only true if you believe that Google TV will be like Windows CE/Embedded, and not a content play. Ronen hasn’t spent enough time watching Google suck up eyeballs and find ways to keep you from ever leaving their world.
Google wants to be TV. It has seen Hulu, and other online video plays start to reduce cable TV’s market share, and it wants in. Boxee that is a simple software gateway is under the impression that it is their UI that is why people use there product. There UI is pretty decent, but the truth is, that it is a single portal to lots of content that makes it compelling. It is too painful to browse 20 different sites for video content. If Google becomes that portal, Boxee will cease to exist.
The good news for Boxee is that Google doesn’t understand video. At all. Sure Youtube is huge, but that is because Google bought a smart product and had the money to push it to profitability losing a crap load of money along the way. Something no one else had the money to do. Unless Google is going out spend Hulu on the money losing for audience building game that just won’t happen.
The other BIG problem for a Boxee with Google TV is that Google Sucks at user experience. Their less is more approach is great for a search engine, but Android is not consumer friendly, and making that unfriendly UI work with a remote will only make it more unfriendly. Getting the 10 foot experience to be solid is a challenge for any company, but one with as bad of a track record as Google, well you can expect that you will be holding a keyboard, a mouse, a touch pad and an anal probe while trying to use Google TV from your couch.
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-- Brandon Wirtz