14 DAY TRIAL // The first real signs that Intel wasn't doing great in the field of Smart TVs was when it dropped Boxee Box support and, now, iSuppli found that the Google TV project is another venture that the chip giant is backing out of.
To give some context, Intel has, for some time, been trying to expand its business into other areas than computer CPUs.
The SSD business seems to be doing well enough, but Intel's attempts at making mobile or Smart TV chips haven't been very spectacular yet.
Still, even though the company continues in its drive to finally start to give ARM trouble on the mobile front (smartphones, tablets, etc.), the Smart TV segment has proven a bit hard to handle.
Back in the first half of October, 2011, Intel dropped support for the Boxee Box.
Now, Intel is starting to move away from Google's Smart TV as well, as its SoC (system-on-chip) offerings barely gained any market share to speak of.
To make things clear, Intel didn't even secure 2% of the worldwide TV SoC market.
“In a television semiconductor market characterized by entrenched suppliers and weak near-term growth prospects, Intel was facing enormous challenges in trying to establish itself as a competitor,” said Randy Lawson, principal analyst for display and consumer electronics at HIS.
“And with the first-generation Google TV products proving unsatisfactory given their slow sales, it’s no surprise that Intel is moving away from the television SoC market.”
For those wishing for a clarification, Smart TVs are TVs that have Internet connectivity and other interactive features, basically the ability to function, to some extent, as a PC (play video off HDDs/flash drives, use widgets, record broadcasts, that sort of thing).
Google TV was supposed to skyrocket and pull Intel's SoC market share along, but this, alas, has failed to happen so far.