Now that's a first. Panasonic is passing on "Google TV" because it'll be too expensive to implement Android on their sets. In the smartphone space, manufacturers love Android because of its open source nature (read: no licensing fees) but in the realm of television it's the opposite--because Android is a powerful OS, it needs a powerful computer-type chip to power it. Intel makes those chips, and they ain't cheap. The logic is, 'televisions are used to display media, not be a computer' but it sort of reeks of 'let's keep our margins as high as we can for as long as we can'. Televisions are quickly becoming hubs for Netflix streaming, Youtube viewing, and a ton of other web content. The current options are janky and slow, Google might have a solution.
We think if "Google TV" can prove itself awesome, Panasonic and others may change their course. But TVs have been so slow to embrace the internet that we don't even know if Google can pull it off. TV manufacturers want to give us 3D. We want the Internet, and Google, everywhere, right? [businessweek via androidandme]
