Will Google TV make Apple TV irrelevant? Ill-placed question or not?

Posted by Gianluigi Cuccureddu SMP in Writers on October 07, 2010  |  0 Comments More from this author  |    |  Follow Gianluigi Cuccureddu SMP on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter |

The answer is "Yes" according to Paul Erickson, Senior Analyst at IMS Research, stated via a press release on Business Wire.

Earlier this week Google partially unveiled its television strategy and content partners.
Erickson stated that the capabilities and product reach of Google TV may make Apple TV irrelevant to consumers over time.

Erickson states:

“Apple TV has struggled to capture mainstream consumers. Now, the product is squeezed between OTT capabilities on game consoles and Blu-ray players, and the search-augmented, integrated television+OTT video experience that Google TV is slated to deliver across TV and set-top box form factors.

Google’s strategy to make the Google TV experience compatible with cable, satellite, or terrestrial broadcasts will enable the product to have greater impact than Apple TV.

This is also due to broad content support, with Google TV supporting a larger selection of content partners that is expected to increase over time.

Google TV fundamentally differs from Apple TV in that its scale is larger and less constrained; it has tight integration of live TV, OTT video, and Internet-driven search and applications, either in set-top box form or integrated into your TV. Without careful re-imagining of what Apple TV’s value proposition will be within this new OTT competitive landscape that Google TV will occupy at the high end, Apple’s 'hobby' is likely to remain such.”

Erickson himself makes the remark that Google TV and Apple TV fundamentally differ from each other.

Is the questioning of making Apple TV irrelevant thus ill-placed?

Erickson says: "Apple TV has struggled to capture mainstream consumers."

But does Apple TV and Google TV target the same audiences/users?

It's a horizontal audience (Google) versus brand-maniacs (Apple), do these two target audiences even collide?

Surely both companies are trying to be the innovator in the TV industry, disrupt its current model.

Surely both have a proven track record of changing the landscapes where they operate in, Google when it comes to Internet usage and search, Apple when it comes to iTunes/iPhone/apps and it's devices.

Both have the same goals but in different segments, are they able and do they even want to transcend each other's audiences?

The Google - Apple battle is a very interesting one, both have unique propositions, from certain points of -marketing- perspectives a close read and interpretation is needed to have a correct understanding.