Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) hasn't exactly raised the white flag, but it is in tactical retreat from its grandiose plans to get into the Web TV business. With its Google TV software facing consumer apathy and programmers giving it the cold shoulder, Google has asked its TV maker partners to hold off on introductions so it can reconfigure its package.
The timing is especially bad for consumer electronics vendors who target the holidays for new product sales and the post-holiday Consumer Electronics Show (CES) as a stage to demonstrate glitzy new offerings. According to multiple reports, a big CES splash early next month has been pulled as Google works to understand where it went wrong in the television space.
"Our long-term goal is to collaborate with a broad community of consumer electronics manufacturers to help drive the next generation of TV-watching experience and we look forward to working with other partners to bring more devices to market in the coming years," a Google spokeswoman told the New York Times while declining to address the specifics of future and present products.
The first real indicator that Google TV was in trouble came when the major networks--all of whom are working to wring more dollars from pay television service providers--withheld their shows from Google TV.
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