Google TV will launch by year-end

Google has confirmed plans to launch its TV platform and has announced a number of partners for the project.

Google will partner with Intel, Sony, Logitech, Best Buy, Dish Networks and Adobe to develop Google TV, which will be based on the Android operating platform and run the Google Chrome web browser. At yesterday’s Google developer conference in San Francisco, the company described Google TV as “an open platform that adds the power of the web to the television viewing experience, ushering in a new category of devices for the living room”.

Users of Google TV will be able to access internet and cloud-based content and applications on TV sets, including Adobe Flash content. Google said that as well as streaming video from various content providers including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand and YouTube, Google TV will also be able to run apps from the Android Market. Google will soon release TV-specific APIs for web applications in order to encourage web developers to build web applications for use on TV sets. Google also plans to open source the Google TV platform so that other developers can use it. “The long-term goal is to collaborate with the entire developer community to help drive entertainment in the living room forward and to introduce the next generation of TV-watching experience,” the company said.

Sony and Logitech said they would develop products using the Intel Atom CE4100 processor and running Google TV later this year. Sony will introduce Sony Internet TV’s incorporating the Google TV platform in the US this autumn along with what Google described as a “set-top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive”.

Google TV will launch with Dish Network in the US but the company said the platform would work with any operator. Dish has partnered with Google for Google TV since launching a joint trial over a year ago with more than 400 Dish and Google beta users.

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