Google announced that it has inked several partnership deals that were connected with its Google TV products that are currently on display at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show or CES. One of these is its deal with semiconductor maker Marvell that will provide the processor for the next generation Google TV hardware.
The tech giant announced that the upcoming Google TV sets would come with an ARMADA 1500 HD Media system-on-a-chip. It is an ARM-based chip that costs less than the x86-based Intel Atom chip that came with the original Google TV sets. With the introduction of ARM-based Google TVs, Android developers could easily make apps to run on the platform.
The first generation Google TV devices didn’t sell well because consumers were turned off by its price. In November, Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca said that his company’s weak earnings in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2012 were due to the decision of the company to sell the Logitech Revue for $300. The company had to drop the price to $99, which sold faster and showed that there was demand for Google TV devices.
Apple could be blamed for setting market expectations when it released the $99 Apple TV device. There are rumors that Apple is set to introduce a new TV set in 2012.
