An online article by TelecomPaper has announced that Sony will be launching two set-top-boxes (STBs) which are running on an Android OS in Europe come September. The alleged STBs will give access to Google apps and Video-on-Demand (VoD) on users’ television sets. According to Stephane Labrousse who is the marketing director of Sony France, “Google TV, which launched in the U.S in October 2010, will finally come to markets such as the UK, Germany, France and Spain.”
On the remote control of the STBs, there will be a menu button that will direct users to the Google Play Store where they will be privileged to between a 120 to 200 apps for download by the time the device launches. Labrousse also added that after the launching, Google will get down to the grassroots and make localized apps for the different countries and regions involved. Google, which has just launched its video rental system in France, has brought over the Sony remote that can pick up voice commands to operate the top-box.
Although Sony has brought over most of the features, the company has decided to leave out the content suggestion system based on search history that is in use over in the U.S version of the so-called ‘Google-Box’. Besides that, the French version of the STB will also feature YouTube and music, videos and a television service from the manufacturer itself. Sony has decided to churn out an STB for customers that will be priced in the range of EUR200-300 as opposed to attempting to integrate an Android OS into a new line of Television sets which would end up like the Android mobile range which has developers climbing a curve to adapt to various versions of the OS as well as hardware specifications.