Google TV Gets Android Market And Android 3.1 Honeycomb

Google TV was announced at last year's Google I/O and launched last November but its excitement waned as its hardware was viewed as being pricey and its firmware not well integrated with the rest of Google's ecosystem. However, today's keynote at Google I/O 2011 brought some revelations that will likely breathe new life into Google TV.

Google today announced two major developments for Google TV. First is that Android 3.1 Honeycomb would be coming to the TV platform. This means that developers would be able to create apps from the same SDK for both tablets and Google TV. This makes for a more streamlined process and also would increase developer support for the Google TV platform and not to mention all the new app possibilities to come that could truly change the TV viewing experience. This would certainly put Google TV ahead of rivaling smart TV platforms.

The second major development is the addition of Android Market to Google TV. Now that the SDK for tablets and TV are the same, developers can more easily create new apps that work for both, making the Android Market an obvious addition to Google TV. Android Market for Google TV is scheduled to open sometime this summer. Existing Google TV customers will get a firmware update automatically over-the-air.