Google wants to enter the living room with Android TV, attracting competition from giants

After Samsung, LG and others successively set up their own companies and developed their own smart TV operating systems, Google launched its third offensive on the large-screen operating platform. According to foreign media reports, Google will showcase Android TV at the Google I/O Developer Conference to be held at the end of this month. Since the past two months, the technology industry has been rumored about Google's new Android TV platform, and Google hopes to seize more home users. The entrance to the living room is currently a battleground for all parties. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. all hope to control this traffic port with operating systems or other entrances such as XBOX. However, after the baptism of PCs and mobile phones , international manufacturers such as Samsung and domestic whole machine and Internet cross-border enterprises realized the strategic position of the operating system as early as when smart TVs were introduced, and the operating system started a world war.

Many competitors are eating into the Android TV market

AndroidTV is not a piece of hardware, but a smart TV operating system. It is said that the Android TV platform will focus on online content such as Hulu and Netflix. In addition, games will also be a major focus of this platform. Google's new Android TV platform will draw inspiration from the card-style interfaces currently deployed in products such as Google+ and Google Now, and will therefore have certain similarities with these card-style interfaces. These cards will provide links that can be connected to content such as movies, TV shows, and music through some separate applications. Android TV emphasizes media content rather than the source service of the content, allowing service providers to step back and bring their content to the forefront.

Google previously launched Google TV and later Chromecast, but the results were not satisfactory. Android TV can be said to be another effort.

Home appliance expert Liu Buchen said that Google's Android system is the big winner, with more than 90% of smart TV products equipped with the Android operating system.

Under Google's management, the Android system has occupied most of the mobile phone market and also has the capital to compete with Apple's iOS system in tablet computers . Due to its relatively mature ecosystem and abundant resources, many home appliance manufacturers have deeply customized the Android system as the basis, but they may use another name in their promotion, such as MIU I, Alibaba Cloud, etc.

But more and more companies are setting up their own businesses, and Google is also facing a lot of competition. When Samsung launched the concept of Smart TV, it used its own operating system based on the Lunix system. LG acquired the webOS system and applied it to its smart TV products. As the two largest TV manufacturers in the world, they dare not be strangled by third-party companies. In addition, Microsoft cooperated with BesTV to introduce X box to China. It is reported that Microsoft is now investing in TVs with X box set-top boxes . The next generation of X box game consoles allows it to receive TV and set-top box signals. In addition, there is Apple TV, which is like the sword of Damocles.

Liu Buchen said that the Android system itself was developed for mobile phones and is not completely suitable for TVs, so various manufacturers have modified the system, but the foundation is still Android. "Google launched Android TV and continued to improve it, probably because it is worried that color TV manufacturers will flee or even get rid of it, affecting Google's patent fees."

The Android system itself is open source, but that doesn't mean it's free. An industry insider told Nandu reporters that the biggest feature of Android is its good openness, but that doesn't mean terminal companies don't have to consider intellectual property fees and related technology docking issues. "What Google has opened up for free is only the upper-level general application framework. Different hardware companies have different hardware structures and environments, so terminal companies need to develop their own, which requires Google to provide technical support."

Official operating system will be promoted within this year

Domestic enterprises that have experienced many hardships in the patent concentration of operating systems also have expectations for operating systems. Based on the bottom-level customization and modification of the Android system, domestic enterprises have launched Alibaba Cloud OSTV, Skyworth Tianci System, LeTV LetvUI, etc. In addition, in 2014, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are accelerating the standardization of smart TVs. In January this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology established the "Joint Working Group on Smart TV Standards" to promote the smart TV operating system TVOS based on the next generation broadcasting and television network (NGB). Recently, the radio and television smart TV operating system TVOS has started the pilot work. At the CCBN 2014 Digital TV China Summit, Sheng Zhifan, Director of the Science and Technology and Standard Management Division of the Science and Technology Department of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television, revealed that the next generation broadcasting and television network (NGB) smart TV operating system will be promoted in the radio and television and television markets in an open source manner.

Currently, TVOS smart TV operating system has passed the acceptance and will enter the promotion stage in 2014. TVOS is compatible with the Android system and has a digital TV module. Operators and terminal manufacturers do not need to invest manpower and material resources in the development of digital TV functions when using this system. At the same time, the smart TV operating system standard is not a mandatory standard, but only a recommended standard. The state will not force it to be implemented among home appliance manufacturers or radio and television operators.

In this regard, Liu Buchen said that Chinese companies are also in an awkward situation. On the one hand, they realize that the operating system cannot be too dependent on Android, but on the other hand, it is difficult to start a new business without Android, and consumers will not buy it.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell: The biggest threat to the living room market comes from Apple

The threat posed by the popularity of Apple TV is far greater than that posed by game console giants Sony and Microsoft. Apple continues to expand its presence in the living room market, and compared with Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox, Apple TV is still a dark horse in a sense. Products in the living room game market will move towards cheaper hardware that can be integrated with the user's PC. Our biggest challenge does not come from game consoles, but from Apple's move into the living room game market before the PC industry takes action.

Currently, Apple TV does not officially support gaming applications and lacks the necessary hardware to effectively run such software, such as a more powerful processor and traditional controllers. Apple is expected to launch a new version of Apple TV soon, equipped with Broadcom wireless chips that support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. Apple TV will be equipped with the A5X SoC, which will greatly improve product performance.

I think the future of living room gaming is going to be less complex -- Apple's products are really easy to use. The question now is whether we can make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves, and whether we can do a better job of solving the problems associated with mobile technology before Apple takes over the living room gaming market.

Apple VP Eddy Cue: What will the future of Apple TV look like?

What will the future Apple TV look like? If Apple wants to make and sell a new Apple TV, what difficulties will it face? Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president, explained in detail:

"While Apple has launched the Apple TV device, it has not significantly improved the way we watch TV now. It is not actually a TV . The high-tech world generally believes that the network TV and cable TV model are outdated and the future belongs to streaming media. A new generation of viewers is moving away from traditional TV."

However, television is still a huge market that is attractive to every company in the high-tech field. Eddy said, "The viewing experience of television is terrible. What we have today is just an advanced VCR." He compared the current technology to the VCRs of the past era and listed some shortcomings of television, such as the need for TV viewers to remember to set a playback record. These shortcomings are seen as the reason why Apple TV's streaming on demand is becoming more and more popular.

However, this is not to say that Eddie is particularly fond of the current on-demand system. He also criticized the streaming viewing experience on the iPad - the verification problems during playback make the experience of watching streaming content very suboptimal.

The industry inferred from Eddie's remarks that if Apple produced a real Apple TV, it would likely have a system that could automatically search, discover and recommend content, without requiring viewers to set playback records like using a VCR. And it would have to bypass all the verification questions that cable operators impose on iPad or mobile phone users.

It's a complicated issue because getting movie studios, TV networks and cable providers to agree to a single licensing agreement for a new device is nearly impossible. "One of the problems with TV is that it's a bunch of disparate systems," says Eddy. "There's no standard, and it's a complicated area." It's very different from the music business. But Apple also has a big incentive to expand its existing Apple TV box business. The company has sold 20 million Apple TVs, generating more than $1 billion in sales, and it's a growing business.

The living room market currently has three major groups

● Internet giants

In 2013, a competition centered around the living room for smart routers, smart set-top boxes, and super TVs became a hot area on the Internet. Baidu, 360, LeTV, iQiyi and other Internet companies became the main players in this field. Even Perfect World, a game manufacturer, teamed up with Jinya Technology to launch the Perfect Box, a smart product that crosses the boundaries of games and traditional home appliances.

● Traditional hardware manufacturers

Home appliance and television companies are making a big fuss about smart TVs, each launching its own TV operating system.

Peripheral hardware equipment manufacturers are not to be outdone. After entering the smartphone, tablet and TV set-top box markets, Huawei is preparing to expand its reach into the electronic game console market in 2014. The company announced that it will release the TR ON game console in the Chinese market in the second quarter of this year. This product was unveiled at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and allows users to run games and watch videos on the TV screen. Companies including Tongzhou Electronics have also announced the release of new products.

● Multinational Corporations

After Microsoft XBOX and Sony PS4 announced their indirect entry into China, Google's new Android TV platform also released rumors that it will be released soon. Multinational companies such as Apple, Google, and Amazon all hope to control the living room market, a traffic port, through operating systems or other entrances.

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The next generation of Internet entertainment will be presented in multiple dimensions through TV, mobile phone, tablet, PC and other screens, and the living room screen will become the next market entrance. In the process of planning living room entertainment, companies with strong R&D capabilities across TV, computer and mobile platforms and the ability to integrate global resources are more likely to succeed.

According to relevant data cited by Perfect World CEO Xiao Hong, the global TV game market will reach a record-breaking $27.9 billion in 2016, and China's mature TV game market is expected to reach RMB 40 billion to RMB 60 billion. Currently, the United States, Japan, China, South Korea and the United Kingdom occupy the top five major TV game markets.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.