Google and Apple have been competing with one another in several markets, from phones to mobile ads to music. Yesterday, Google made an advance on yet another one of these fronts, previewing what kinds of content will be available on the soon to be released Google TV platform. As Apple found out, content provides are freaked out by the idea of set top boxes that get programming over the Internet. Google is doing an end-run around those concerns by working with the content providers on their websites by customizing them for use with Google TV. As Google makes its plans more clear, the differences between the Apple TV and Google’s offering are coming into sharper relief.

Google plans to not build their own hardware for the Google TV as they did with Android, in this case working with manufacturers like Sony and Logitech to build their software platform into their equipment. The company updated its Google TV site on Monday with a tour of the new platform’s feature set. Right up front, Google highlighted the most significant differences between it’s device and the Apple TV, with the slogan “TV, apps, search and the entire web… together at last.” Compared to Apple TV’s closed “Lowtide” interface, Google TV plans to have apps like Twitter, Pandora, Napster, and Amazon Video On Demand right from the start as well as custom offerings from CNBC and the NBA, and with access to the Android Market, starting early next year. Both companies have struggled to overcome resistance from the major movie and television studios due to their concerns that Apple TV and Google TV could cannibalize their cable and setllite TV revenues. Google’s approach of making all Web video accessible on its box made the studios worried that their programming would get lost amid all the different content, or pirated, and resdistributed for free. Google refined its pitch to the providers, and now claims they have been “overwhelmed by interest from partners on how they can use the Google TV platform to personalize, monetize and distribute their content in new ways.” The Google TV blog highlights web content from Turner Broadcasting – including TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, as well as the aps from the NBA, NBC, and HBO.

As with the iPhone, which had no third-party apps when it was first released, it seems like the jailbreak community will save Apple yet again. The absence of apps on the Apple TV will be a major liability for the device once Sony’s Internet TV and Blu-Ray player as well as Logitech’s Google TV box are released later this month. What do you think of the whole ordeal? Let us know in the comments below. As usual, stay tuned for more news and info about the topic by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.

Source: AppleInsider, Google, Google (blog), Wall Street Journal

Authors: _GadgetNews

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