Seo Quark: Google TV vs. Apple TV

Saturday 29 October 2011

Google TV vs. Apple TV

Apple TV is reportedly preparing itself for battle with Google TV by chasing the subscription model. This will be one of the biggest tests that Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook will face in upcoming months as Google isn’t going to wait for Apple to grip that market. Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola, the largest producer of set-top boxes should provide a major advantage in the adoption of Google TV.

The two services are different — Google is all about making your TV Web friendly, while Apple sounds more like taking your iTunes video library to the next level. There’s still a lack of info on how Apple plans to integrate the subscription model but that could be huge as many can’t afford to pay individually for every episode or movie they want to watch.

Google seems more interested in integrating their products into an interface that might allow for them to reach audiences that they haven’t been able to reach previously. Overall what that means is I think they’re focusing on a more usable experience, who wouldn’t want to use it for checking e-mail, & social networking (including Google+ ?)

If Google+ gets added to Google TV I’d be curious as to whether Google+ will record what videos you or your friends like & how they’ll use/integrate that data into the search results.

Thanks to SoldierKnowsBest on YouTube for this Google TV vs. Apple TV comparison:

Cable TV & Satellite providers worldwide should have their eyes wide open as this will likely lead to people ditching expensive service contracts for less-expensive “web tv”, gee I think the last time I said that phrase was in 1998. Microsoft’s WebTV sure was ahead of its time– Did anyone besides me own one of those?

I think during the holiday season this year we’ll see an influx of set-top boxes & TV advertising from both sides as the battle for control of internet TV gets ugly.

Update 8/30 – Adding Google TV commercial: