Google has launched some of its products amazingly quickly and effectively. The Android lineup of smartphones is one great example; Android currently dominates the market. And utilities like Gmail are consistently becoming more popular. But other territories have been out of reach for Google. Buzz was seen as a plummeting failure, Wave is waving goodbye, and – most recently – Google TV posted horrendous first quarter figures.
“Horrendous” is a mean word, but Google TV may just deserve it. Google TV devices from Logitech got $22 million in sales in the final quarter of last year, and Logitech projected $18 million in sales for Q1 of 2011. Their actual sales figures? $5 million. That equates to about 72% short of goal, and also led to a 28% increase in held inventory.
What’s the reason for the major shortfall? First, Google TV itself has been receiving negative reviews, based largely on lags in the UI, the high cost of the devices, and long delays in promised interface improvements. These same reviews caused Google to delay the presentation of several peripheral units at CES this year. Second, Logitech has slowed down marketing of the device, likely as a response to slower sales. Logitech’s CEO has stated, however, that the company “fully prepared to re-accelerate those activities at the appropriate time.”
But what will the appropriate time be? Well, it may be shortly after Google I/O, where insiders in Silicon Valley have told us Google will be showcasing numerous new features and other improvements to Google TV. This may be anything from the long-awaited UI improvements to the integration with Android Market to a new set of hardware that can run the Google TV tasks more effectively. In any case, Google is pushing forward with Google TV despite its lack of success so far, and we’ll find out more during Google I/O on May 10th and 11th of this month.
[via Google Watch]
