Logitech has dropped out of the Google TV revolution

Logitech (NASDAQ:LOGI) CEO Guerrino De Luca didn't mince words in announcing that the peripherals maker was giving up on its Logitech Revue companion box, noting that the Google TV device cost the company more than $100 million in operating profits.

Google TV is the search engine provider's stab at combining elements of TV programming with Web surfing, including the delivery of entertainment and gaming applications through set-top boxes such as the Revue. Logitech launched the Revue, powered by Google's Android software and an Intel Atom chip, for $300 last October with high hopes of selling hundreds of thousands of the boxes for the Christmas season.--Logitech's board promptly fired then-CEO Gerald Quindlen.

The company will no longer make the Revue boxes. While he conceded Google TV has great potential to "disrupt the living room," Logitech made "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature" with the Revue.--Google TV launched with Netflix and Amazon Instant Video applications, but most TV broadcast networks failed to provide content for the service. Google, for example, failed to get TV network-backed Hulu to support its TV project.

Google was also late rolling out its long-anticipated Google TV 2.0 Honeycomb upgrade, which features Android Market application support but didn't arrive until late October. What does this mean for Logitech Revue users? Google told eWEEK the Revue would still receive the Google TV 2.0 Honeycomb 3.1 upgrade that is currently rolling out to users of Sony Google TV systems.

"Logitech has been a good partner in the early days of Google TV, and the feedback from Revue users has been very important for the design of the new version of Google TV announced two weeks ago," a Google spokesperson told eWEEK. Logitech has dropped out of the Google TV revolution. Logitech Chief Executive Guerrino De Luca is writing off Google TV as a "big mistake" that along with other "operational miscues" in Europe, the Middle East and Africa cost the company more than $100 million in operating profits. Logitech is stopping production on the set-top boxes.

At an event for analysts and investors, De Luca called the 2010 launch of Google TV "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature," according to The Verge. Further, he predicted that the "grandchild of Google TV" might succeed but not the current product. For now, that leaves Sony televisions with the Google software for people looking for the Google TV experience. It's a major blow to Google's TV aspirations. Logitech device owners will still get the updated software Google released last month. "Logitech has been a good partner in the early days of Google TV, and the feedback from Revue users has been very important for the design of the new version of Google TV announced two weeks ago," a spokesman said.

Not everyone has lost faith in Google TV. Google and LG Electronics, the world's second-largest television manufacturer, may take the wraps off a television using Google's software in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. A Google spokesman declined to comment. "Google can't be right all of the time. For every Android hit, there will be a Google TV that stumbles out of the gate. Google owes Logitech an apology, though what would be even better is if finally takes Google TV to the next level to make Logitech regret that it ever left."

Computer peripheral maker Logitech said that the underwhelming launch of its Google TV set-top box, the Logitech Revue, cost the company dearly, laying some of the blame on Google's incomplete software.--Google maintains it is committed to Google TV, too. "Logitech has been a good partner in the early days of Google TV, and the feedback from Revue users has been very important for the design of the new version of Google TV announced two weeks ago," a Google spokesperson said via email.

Logitech might remain one of Google's partners, possibly as a maker of Google TV peripherals, but De Luca said the company has no plans to build another Revue box. Google TV misfired at launch because it over-promised and under-delivered. The most significant mistake Logitech made, suggested De Luca, was not paying enough attention to the company's product portfolio. The company, De Luca conceded, failed to recognize Apple's "ideological leadership in the PC space."