The Google TV platform debuted this year with considerable hype and anticipation that Google would somehow re-invent television with its Android+Chrome TV-surfing platform. The flagship product for Google TV was supposed to be the Logitech Revue, but—despite a clever ad campaign featuring Kevin Bacon—the product doesn’t seem to have lit a fire in consumers’ wallets. According to Logitech’s financial results for fiscal 2010, the Logitech Revue—and associated peripherals, like a camera—managed to ring up just $5 million in sales (PDF). That figure is a whopping $13 million lower than what Logitech indicated it expected just last quarter, meaning the Logitech Revue did less than one third of the business Logitech was expecting. The Revue’s sales didn’t help “disappointing” results for Logitech’s final fiscal quarter of the year.
In response, Logitech plans to lower the suggested retail price from $299 to $249, and “scale back” marketing activities for the time being—that likely means no more clever Kevin Bacon spots.
Logitech still seems committed to the Google TV platform, indicating the “next generation” of Google TV represents on the company’s “most promising growth opportunities.” However, the Google TV platform has failed to catch on with consumers, who have generally criticized the system as too complicated and awkward to use. Users have also been plagued with TV networks preventing Google TV from accessing streaming versions of their programming, which makes the Logitech Revue not only one of the priciest online video set-top boxes out there, but a platform with comparatively little top-flight content.
