The line of ‘Dragonpoint’ TVs will be announced this month at the Google I/O event, under the Sony brand.
Bloomberg Businessweek reported this weekend that the anticipated ‘GoogleTV platform’ will be announced at the Google I/O conference on May 19th-20th.
Sony (SNE) will build both Blu-Ray players and TVs with the Linux-based Android ‘Dragonpoint’ platform built-in. Until now, Android has mostly been built to run with ARM chips on touch-based mobile devices. TVs and BluRay players will demand more horsepower to drive 1080P screens and and won’t be so limited by battery requirements of small form factor phone devices.
That is a perfect combination for Intel, which has been until now, almost entirely shut out of the popular Android platform with its more power-hungry processors.
It isn’t clear if the 50,000+ apps, which were developed for touch form factor phones, will be part of the package. Obviously, Google’s video property, YouTube, which recently began a movie rental business will be a big part of the draw. Other Google services like Maps and Chrome browser will likely make appearances as well.
Smaller firms have already announced plans to run Google powered TVs and it wouldn’t be surprising if other hardware vendors build GoogleTVs as well.
Sony has been falling behind in the display market with both Korean firms Samsung and LG surpassing the once-dominant TV maker. This move could help it regain some of that lost marketshare.
Vizio, which bills itself as ‘America’s #1 LCD HDTV Company’ also has Linux-based Via TVs that excel in areas like Facebook and Twitter integration and include streaming services from Netflix and other video channels.
Apple (AAPL) also has a stake in this game, but it has barely maintained its ‘hobby’, AppleTV, without many upgrades over the past few years. Many anticipate that Apple’s next big move will be into TV land with a new product based on its iPhoneOS and its own ARM chip line.
