OK, they didn't actually say it that way, but sometimes I feel like my job is to cut through the PR niceties and just tell it like it is. And in this case, the truth isn't so far off from what was publicly said. Which is this:
[The Google TV-based Logitech Revue set top box was] "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature," Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca said yesterday. "We have no plans to introduce another box to replace Revue."
De Luca didn't stop there. He said that the Google software that shipped with the box last holiday season at launch was basically a "beta" and that it was all "a big mistake." "We just built a lot because we expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these $300 boxes."
This mistake, along with operational miscues in the EMEA region, cost Logitech "well over $100M in operating profits," according to De Luca.
I have a Google TV device, a Sony Internet TV that is lacking in every imaginable way. It's just an absolute waste of time and money.
If you're looking for yet another way to get entertainment content on your HDTV today, there are two big contenders right now: The Apple TV and Roku 2, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 could be a third assuming they get the Internet TV stuff right. We'll see. But as of today, Google TV is indeed a train wreck.
