Google TV and Apple TV are two excellent services to watch video contents from various sources on the web. You may know Google and Apple are archrivals in technology world for many decades. Besides the fight between Android and iOS, there is now a budding spar in web-to-TV industry between the two giants. Apple has been with its Apple TV since 2007; meanwhile, Google TV is merely a year old.
In the first attempt, Google TV could not win on market because of some unanticipated letdowns from its accessory builders. Here, we compare Google TV and Apple TV to see what differences they make each other.
Google TV is an ecosystem, Apple TV is just a set-top-box
Google TV is an ecosystem with a set-top-box from one company and TV set from the other. The core idea behind Google TV is to stream video contents from various sources on the web to a large display. The company launched Google TV for the first time in October 2010 with official accessories form Logitech and Sony. The service was largely blamed by users and reviewers because of some critical imperfection of Logitech’s set-top-box, called Revue. Google is now working to roll out a second generation Google TV for early next year.
Apple TV, on contrast, is just a set-top-box. The machine is meant to stream contents from various sources like iTunes Store, Netflix, MobileMe, YouTube, Flickr, NBA League Pass, MLB.tv and others to a third party TV. It is not an ecosystem as Google TV is. You have to just purchase Apple TV set-top-box, which you can connect with your TV to watch the videos from the web.
Processing and software
Like iPhone 4, Apple TV runs on the company’s A4 (ARM Cortex-A8) processor and iOS 5. The chipset indeed provides better performance for the device. But Google TV is powered by Intel Atom based CE4100 consumer electronics system-on-chip that we see in laptops. The device plays on Android OS. In comparison, it can be seen that Google TV has a perceptible domination over its Apple rival in processing speed. Moreover, the device features an open source operating system that makes it support more apps than Apple TV.
Google TV has web browser
Google TV is not just for video watching. The device features Google’s Chrome browser, which will help you surf the web with great quality on a large screen. Apart from the web browser, Google TV supports Google Maps and many more web features, which Apple TV lacks. You can surf the web, play games and watch videos on your favorite web sites on Google TV. Apple TV only supports YouTube and Flickr, at the same time.
Google TV supports apps
Google TV supports many apps. You can download apps from Android Market to Google TV. It is a one of key factors that differs Google TV from Apple TV. Running on an open source operating system, you can download apps from all third party providers on Google TV. It brings many more apps for users for multiple purposes.
Apple TV offers content store
Apple has made iTunes as a content store for its TV service. The company has introduced a 0$.99 rental service to let users watch contents. Apart from iTunes, Apple TV also offers contents from various web sources like Netflix, MobileMe, YouTube, Flickr, NBA League Pass, MLB.tv and others. The case is different with Google TV that doesn’t have any dedicated content store. You can stream content from lots of sources on the web like YouTube, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Picasa, Flickr and many others.
What others say
See what Nick Mokey of DigitalTrends says of Google TV and Apple TV in his comparison between the services,
“Now that Apple and Google have focused their laser-like engineering teams on the problem, years of antiquated GUI design are searing off in months as both companies work their magic on the long-neglected “ten-foot interface.””
Wrap-up
Apple TV is already a successful brand in the world. Many people use the service to stream video contents, movies and TV shows from web. Meanwhile, Google is about to roll out second upgrade to Google TV after the failure of its first generation model. However, Google TV has many more things to offer to its users, who would love to consume various contents from web. Google TV brings more content than Apple TV to a watcher.
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