Now it’s official: LG, Samsung, Sony and Vizio will be showing off new Google TV hardware at CES, according to a Google blog post, which also revealed that at least one of these CE makers is ready to take the Google TV experience outside the U.S.: Sony will unveil new gear for the U.S. markets as well as plans to offer Google TV products “in several countries around the world,” the post reads.
This year’s CES could become a bit of a second coming for Google TV. Last year, Vizio and others announced their intention to sell Google TV devices, but the lackluster reception of the platform’s first version stopped them from following through. Google TV 2.0 – which has access to the Android Market — launched in October, and it now seems like the platform may be gaining some momentum. Here are the key things announced so far, in addition to the news from Sony:
- LG will show off a line of TV sets powered by Google TV based on the company’s own L9 chipset.
- Vizio will showcase some yet-to-be-announced gear in private demos — apparently it’s not quite ready for the show floor just yet.
- Samsung will start selling Google TV devices in 2012.
- Marvell announced earlier Thursday that its system-on-a-chip is at the core of Google TV devices shown at CES this year.
- Google also announced a partnership with the Taiwanese chipset designer MediaTek, whose chipsets will “power yet another wave of Google TV devices,” according to the announcement.
Notably absent from all these announcements is early Google TV partner Logitech. The company stumbled when its Revue set-top-boxes didn’t sell and recently said that it won’t make any new Google TV gear for the time being.
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