Google TV Suffers Another Setback

If you were expecting to see various television makers unveil their offerings for Google TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, prepare to be disappointed.

Google TV has received lukewarm reviews since its introduction in October and has asked TV makers such as LG, Sharp, and Toshiba to delay their introductions. “Fine-tuning the software” is the unofficial word and would make sense as Google tries to navigate through the challenging arena of consumer electronics.

With the exception of Android for smartphones, they haven’t displayed a lot of success so far.

Gina Weakley, a Google spokeswoman, declined to discuss the rumors directly.

“Our long-term goal is to collaborate with a broad community of consumer electronics manufacturers to help drive the next-generation TV-watching experience, and we look forward to working with other partners to bring more devices to market in the coming years,” she said.

Without a true presence at CES, the potential for mainstream adoption of Google TV is likely delayed for months, perhaps even another year according to James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester. He says that it’s the way they interact with their hardware partners that causes many of their problems.

“Google as a company is not a particularly partner-friendly or partner-focused company,” he said.

As powerful as Google is on the Internet, they have struggled to translate that power into consumer electronic success. Could this be a sign that they need to stay on the web rather than venture into hardware as Apple and other competitors have?