Google TV is still a flop, report claims

As Google’s vendor partners prepare renewed efforts to push HDTVs and accessories that showcase Google TV, a new report suggests that they have their work cut out for them. First introduced at a press conference in late 2010, Google TV has not seen the success Google had hoped for. The CEO of Logitech, one of the first vendors to launch a Google TV product, went as far as to call its Google TV-powered Revue a gigantic mistake that cost the company dearly. Now, in more than a year on the market, all of Google’s partners have combined to sell fewer that 1 million Google TV devices according to a recent report. Read on for more.

Using readily available installed user base data published within the Android Market, GigaOm was able to deduce that Google TV device sales likely fall in the 500,000 to 1 million-unit range. The site looked at installed base data for a number of applications that come pre-installed on Google TV-powered devices, and they all fell within that range. Mobile analysis firm Xyologic released similar findings earlier this month.

Apple has sold more than 4.2 million Apple TV boxes to date and it reportedly has a brand new HDTV product on the way. Meanwhile Roku has more than doubled Google TV sales, having managed to ship more than 2.5 million set-top boxes. We saw a number of new HDTVs with Google TV unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, but Google has a lot of work to do to raise awareness even if those new products are a hit. A recent study found that less than half of all smart TVs sold are actually connected to the Internet.