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SAN
FRANCISCO — Logitech International has dropped out of
the Google TV revolution.
Logitech
Chief Executive Guerrino De Luca is writing off Google
TV as a “big mistake” that cost the Swiss company
more than $100 million in operating profits. He said
Logitech will stop producing its Revue set-top boxes,
which enable televisions to receive Internet video.
At an
event for analysts and investors Thursday, De Luca
called last year’s launch of Google TV “a mistake of
implementation of a gigantic nature,” according to
technology blog the Verge.
De Luca
said the company would bring “closure” to the
“saga,” which included steep price cuts to the
Logitech Revue set-top boxes, by letting the inventory
run out this quarter.
He said
there are no plans to introduce another box to replace
Revue. Further, he predicted that the “grandchild of
Google TV” might succeed, but not the current product.
For now,
that leaves Sony televisions with the Google Inc.
software as the only other way to get the Google TV
experience.
Consumers
will continue to get customer support for the set-top
boxes and automatic, free updates to the Google
software, Logitech spokeswoman Rose Maciejewski said in
an email.
She also
noted that the company is “optimistic about the
long-term opportunity for the Google TV platform and the
potential for Logitech to offer associated products as
the ecosystem evolves.”
A Google
spokesman downplayed the blow to Google’s TV
aspirations, saying the company would announce new
partnerships with hardware makers for its next
generation of Google TV devices.
Not
everyone has lost faith in Google TV.
LG
Electronics, the world’s second-largest television
manufacturer, may take the wraps off a television using
Google’s software at the Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas in January.
But
Google still has not won over the four major broadcast
networks. That remains a big problem, said analyst Rick
Munarriz.
“As the
owner of a Google TV, I appreciate the software upgrade
that the search giant rolled out earlier this month. It
does improve the platform. The interface is more
fluid,” Munarriz wrote in an article on the Motley
Fool website.
“However,
Google still needs to play nice with Tinseltown for this
to revolutionize smart televisions,” Munarriz wrote.
“Google can’t be right all of the time. For every
Android hit, there will be a Google TV that stumbles out
of the gate.”
“It’s
hard to argue with De Luca’s painful assessment,” he
said. “Google owes Logitech an apology, though what
would be even better is if it finally takes Google TV to
the next level to make Logitech regret that it ever
left.”
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