Logitech pulls out of Google TV

On the heels of rumours that internet giant, Google, might be making a play for paid television — Logitech has pulled the plug on Google TV set-top boxes. The manufacturer said that consumers just aren’t ready for the device, which merges television and the internet.

“Google TV or the child of Google TV or the grandchild of Google TV will happen,” said Guerrino De Luca, the chairman and acting chief executive of the Swiss computer peripherals maker.

But it seems it just won’t happen now with Logitech.

“The integration of television and the internet is inevitable,” De Luca said at an event for analysts and investors held in New York on Wednesday. “But the idea that it would happen overnight in Christmas 2010 was very misguided.

“Google TV is a great concept,” he said. “Google TV has the potential to completely disrupt the living room.

“Except that was not the case when we launched Logitech Revue.”

The product was unveiled late last year with the promise that it would “help redefine the user experience in the digital living room.”

The Revue, which routes web content to television sets, went on sale for US$300, a hefty price for the average consumer. Faced with sluggish sales, however, Logitech cut the price to just US$99.

De Luca also admits that the product was not entirely ready when it hit the market.

“Logitech Revue was launched with some — I wouldn’t call it beta properly — but a software that was definitely not complete and not tuned to what the consumer wants in the living room,” he said.

“To make a long story short, we thought we had invented sliced bread and we just made them,” he said. “We built a lot because we expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy this box at US$300.

“That was a big mistake,” De Luca said.

Logitech has since learnt its lesson after a US$100-million loss in operating profit.

“I would definitely want to help Google establish Google TV,” he said. “But with a significantly smaller and more prudent approach.”

Logitech said it expected its inventory of the set-top boxes to run out before the end of fiscal 2012 and it would not introduce a replacement.

It’s not all bad news for Google TV, though. Bloomberg reports that LG and Google will unveil a Google-enhanced TV set at January’s Consumer Electronics Show.

“The revamped version of Google TV service has a simpler interface. The upgrade was designed to show the YouTube video-sharing service better and opens up the platform for Android developers to build applications for TV,” said the report.

Google TV is also available on television sets manufactured by Japanese electronics giant Sony and Blu-ray disc players.