‘Unstoppable Move’

Logitech Using Google TV-Based Revue to Help Build OEM Business

November 15, 2010 by Mark Seavy|Top News

Logitech’s is using its Google TV-based Revue device as a base for integrating its peripherals technology and building a white box OEM business, Ashish Arora, vice president and general manager of digital home, told us at the Digital Hollywood conference in New York. Since shipping Revue in late October, Logitech has been out of stock at some stores, Arora said. The Revue is sold through Amazon, Best Buy, Dish Network and Logitech.com, he said.

The current model is equipped with an optional high-definition “TV” cam ($149), which Logitech is using to promote the GoogleTV platform’s use for video conferencing, Arora said. It’s embedded with Harmony Link software that’s at the heart of Logitech’s remote controls. And while Logitech plans to expand Revue into a line of products, Harmony Link and video conferencing will made available to potential OEM customers, he said. The video conferencing service requires Logitech’s VidHD program, which is pre-installed in Revue along with an application for playing personal music, video and pictures. It also bundles access to Amazon, Napster, Netflix and others with Revue.

"We're going to use the box to show people what is possible and not keep a single thing for ourselves,” Arora said. “We don’t want to be in the set-top box business and we look at” Revue as means for attracting OEMs. The high-definition Web cam doesn’t so much separate the Revue and Sony’s Google TV-equipped Bravia LCD TVs, but rather shows potential customers features that can be built into the device, Arora said. Logitech spent 18 months developing Revue, Arora said.

The market for Google TV devices, based on the Android operating system, will likely expand quickly in 2011, as Google developers create applications for the platform. Google shipped 10,000 Revue units to developers to build interest, Arora said. It also gave away 1,000 units at an Adobe developers conference, he said. Google will release a software development kit for the open-source platform by mid-2011. Google will take same approach it did with smartphones, in which its Android operating system ranked third in market share in Q3 at 21 percent, trailing Apple (24 percent) and Research in Motion (37 percent), industry officials said. “When the browser comes to the television, that’s an unstoppable move” that will signal rapid growth for Internet-capable TVs, Arora said.

Digital Hollywood Notebook

Base specs for mobile devices used to watch video will likely remain unchanged for the next year as the market for the technology builds, said Jeffrey Wang, a partner in the IBB Consulting Group. The optimal screen size and resolution, processor speed and frame rates will continue at 3.5 inches and 858x480, 1 GHz and 30-35 frames per second, he said. While the average viewing time for smartphones remains about 30 minutes, it will be longer for wireless tablet PCs like Apple’s iPad, said Desiree Rodriguez, vice president of business development at MobiTV. MobiTV’s iPad and iPhone application has been popular since its release, many customers choosing a $30 three-month Premier subscription price over a 30-day pass for $9.99, Rodriguez said. MobiTV’s application launched in May and the renewal rate after the initial three-month period was “much higher than we expected,” Rodriguez said. MobiTV provides 15 channels and VoD to cellular carriers including Verizon and AT&T. MobiTV has about 14 million subscribers. During MobiTV’s broadcast of the World Cup, viewers of the tournament spent 84 minutes watching on average, while a customer watching with an Android-based smartphone, spent 120 minutes, Rodriguez said. “A lot of users didn’t have access” on mobile devices to the World Cup, which added Hispanic viewers to MobiTV’s broadcasts, Rodriguez said. Meanwhile, MobiTV postponed to Q2 or Q3 the launch of its version of TV Everywhere, which would allow users who start watching programming on a smartphone to pause and resume on another device, Rodriguez said. MobiTV, which has been working on the technology two years, had planned to have it available in Q1 of next year. It showed the proposed service at CTIA in October. “It’s just taking a little longer to work through all the carriers,” Rodriguez said. “We've been engaged for two years working toward this point and we have work through all these back end systems. It’s a huge overhaul.” MobiTV, which has raised more than $100 million since its founding in 1999, delivers programs to more than 350 types of devices. The company is said to be nearing $100 million in annual revenue.

NDS is testing a cable ad platform with Cisco set-top boxes that could be deployed with Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner, said Steve Tranter, vice president of broadband and interactive. NDS is jointly developing with Black Arrow a platform capable of being deployed from the cable headend to the set-top box. NDS was the lead investor in Black Arrow’s $20 million funding round earlier this year (CED April 21 p2). Black Arrow sells software to insert targeted ads on pay TV and online platforms including video-on-demand (VoD). Black Arrow’s software is being combined with NDS Dynamic, which provides audience measurement and addressable advertising. Before their agreement, NDS Dynamic was scheduled for release in 2011. Black Arrow had deployed its Decision suite software with Comcast in Jacksonville, Fla., and has expanded to other markets. NDS also has moved “beyond proof of concept” for its Infinite TV software, but the release timing hasn’t been nailed down, Tranter said. Infinite TV features an electronic program guide that gives users access to Internet video services and applications and is powered by search and recommendation engines. It also provides metadata for broadcast programs. NDS expects to continue providing its XTV DVR software to DirecTV, despite the satellite service’s plans to introduce a combo satellite receiver/TiVo DVR, NDS officials said. NDS, once an affiliate of DirecTV’s through News Corp., displaced TiVo as the DirecTV’s DVR provider in 2005. Despite the new agreement, TiVo will not “necessarily be their default DVR,” NDS Sales Director Paul Ranger said. “TiVo has an appeal to a certain segment of customer and there will be room for other platforms” with DirecTV. DirecTV officials weren’t immediately available for comment. NDS supplies DirecTV with other services, including smart security cards.

PrimeSense, whose reference system is at the heart of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-gaming accessory for the Xbox 360, is planning to move the technology to TVs, with prototypes expected next year and finished product in 2012, Uzi Breier, executive vice president of global sales and chief marketing officer, told us. PrimeSense provided the image processor and audio and video interface for Kinect, mounting four audio microphones on the front of device to pinpoint where a user is by auditory projection. The system sense motion with one infrared camera and two image sensors, PrimeSense officials said. The PrimeSense system, which includes cameras, microphones and a processor, carries a $17 cost, UBM TechInsights found. In shifting to TVs, PrimeSense’s system could be sold as an add-on module or embedded in the set’s circuit board, company officials said. The system deployed in TVs will be like the one used in Kinect, Breier said. But the version for TVs will have a wider field of view, he said. PrimeSense, which has 150 employees, has about 100 engineers working bringing the motion-sensing technology to TVs, Breier said. PrimeSense spent two years developing for Kinect, Breier said. “Microsoft pushed us, which was great because it made us work harder,” he said.