Analysts: Google’s Motorola Mobility Acquisition Boosts Google TV

From X-bit Labs: Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility may yet allow the search giant to achieve success with its faltering Google TV product, as Google tries again to penetrate the market for Internet-enabled televisions and set-top boxes, an area projected to more than triple in four years, according to the IHS iSuppli.

“Google’s acquisition could pay off in the set-top box space, especially because the company’s own Google TV smart television products seemed headed to an early grave in the wake of a steep dive in pricing. Motorola currently is No. 2 in set-top box shipments, and the inclusion of Google TV in this already successful line of products will give Google access to an already established customer base,” said Roque Muña, a researcher for consumer electronics and wireless communication at HIS.

Global shipments of Internet-enabled televisions and set-top boxes are forecast to reach 295.9 million units in 2015, up a resounding 240 percent from 86.9 million this year.

For now, Google TV is finding it difficult to gain traction. For instance, the manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) for Logitech’s Google TV-enabled Revue set-top box has fallen by as much as 60 percent from its initial price of $249. Meanwhile, Sony Corp.’s integrated Google TV sets are experiencing similar price drops.

The televisions and set-top boxes for both Logitech and Sony were prohibitively expensive devices that lacked the content to meet consumer demand, Muña observed. However, the new value to be created from the combination of Google TV and Motorola set-top boxes likely will please current customers – as long as the new mix doesn’t detract from users’ current mode of accessing content. Thus, while customer acceptance for Google TV is predicated on the availability of content, Google TV-enabled set-top boxes will enjoy solid growth as long as they maintain current functionality and are appropriately priced.

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