Samsung jumps into bed with Google TV

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is next in line to jump into the sack with Google on its TV services, ignoring the lacklustre uptake.

Despite Google TV being lambasted by hardware partner Logitech as a "beta product" that "cost [Logitech] dearly", Samsung is planning to unveil its own Google TV at an event next year.

Yoon Boo-Keun, president of Samsung's TV division, told reporters that Samsung's Google TV was going to be different from its rivals, but didn't elaborate on how nor when exactly the device would be coming, Reuters reported.

Google TV already comes built in to some Sony TV models and on Logitech set-top boxes, although the latter are likely to become scarcer after the firm said it was dumping the service.

Guerrino De Luca, CEO of Logitech, called the boxes "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature" at the start of this month, adding that the partnership with Google TV, coupled with some "operational miscues in EMEA", had cost the company over $100m in operating profits.

So far, Google TV has failed to set the world alight, but an upgrade at the end of October took some steps in the right direction and it may just be that early adopters such as Logitech need to hang in there for the long term as the Chocolate Factory improves the service at an achingly slow speed.

However, most TV and TV-related stuff manufacturers don't have a lot of extra cash to be shunting into a less-than-wildly popular product since the general market for TVs has proved dire in the wake of the global credit crisis.

Samsung is probably one of the firms that does have a little more in the way of readies, as it's doing better than rivals that have had to contend with the Japanese yen and also has its skyrocketing smartphone sales to draw on. Which also come by way of partnership with Google, so maybe the South Korean giant is thinking what worked once could work again... ®