Software Bug Leads to CES 2011 Google TV Launches Getting Canceled, Says Rumor

Given the huge industry panel gearing up behind Google TV, everyone sort of expected that this new platform was going to be a smash hit, but for the time being, things seem to be a little rocky, especially since it's rumored that the Google TV launches scheduled for CES 2011, pertaining so some of the world's best-known HDTV manufacturers, have all been delayed due to some unexpected software problems.

So, as Electronista reports, it seems that the search-engine giant has forced quite a few of its partners from the HDTV market (reportedly, the companies involved in this debacle are LG, Sharp, Toshiba and Vizio) to cancel their planned CES 2011 launch events for Google TV HDTVs, without even providing them with a launch horizon.

The same sources claim that Samsung will, nevertheless, launch two Google TV products, while Vizio will also showcase a couple of solutions providing access to Google's service, albeit in a significantly less public manner than initially intended.

Apparently, the whole delay is caused by a last-minute problem related to the Google TV software, one that might negatively affect not only the launches, but also the overall Google TV eco-system, and since Google doesn't really want some more bad press for a product that's already not really going as good as planned, they've decided that a delay is preferable.

Unfortunately, despite of the fact that the Google TV platform initially seemed to be a product that was going to take the whole content distribution business by storm, the truth of the matter is that the outcome was not exactly the one envisioned by the search engine giant, due both to the content provision problems (many TV networks have rejected Google's partnership proposals) and pricing problems, HDTVs and set-top boxes/Blu-ray players enabling access to the service being more expensive than their regular counterparts.

Of course, only time will tell what will ultimately happen to Google TV, but if it ultimately flops, this will certainly be one of the the company's harshest failures to date.