Sony was the first major manufacturer to announce Google TV products last winter, but its rollout of the product line across Europe has been stalled as Google reigned in its initiative just ahead of CES.
Sony Google TV-powered products are available in the US including Bravia HDTVs and a Blu-ray player but this line up will not be extended into Europe for the forseeable future. And one senior executive is doubtful it will ever see the light of day.
According to Tim Page, senior manager, technology marketing, Europe, “We are studying whether we can launch it but there are no plans on pricing or launch dates yet. There was a plan to have something, but for various reasons that was withdrawn. We may see it at some point this year but nothing concrete unfortunately, although we haven’t ruled it out completely.”
Page noted that all of the company’s new TVs launched here contain, for the first time, a basic web browser.
“That’s the first step,” he said. “But integrating it with a search function like Google makes the product much more attractive.”