Hi. While this blog is a part of Seed Catalyst’s website, I realised over the initial few weeks that a lot of you are first introduced to the firm via the blog rather than our home page.
So to introduce myself - I’m a business consultant working with early stage technology firms to help streamline their strategy and go-to-market approach and support them for fund raising.
With this blog, I aim to capture key market trends that I see in the industry, the ecosystem and cross-plays in some of the more interesting and upcoming sectors, as well as cover interesting companies that I meet.
I will also be addressing vexing and interesting valuation and deal/term-sheet structures that would be of interest to technology start-ups at various stages of their growth.
Suddenly wherever you look, it’s all about Google TV. I feel like I’m back in time by two years and everyone is debating the GPhone.
What’s the talk this time around? – Google in partnership with Sony, Intel and Logitech will launch Google TV i.e. a Google set top box
If previous experience is anything to go by, what I’m expecting is the launch of the Google internet-connected Android-based application platform. The platform would be enabled for set top boxes, internet gateways, gaming devices, internet connected TVs.
And the way to market:
Case 1: Set top boxes are most often than not provided by the operator. In such a case Google would need to launch the platform in conjunction with one or more operators. This would be the push approach. It may be a tough route to market if they want to make the Android platform ubiquitous.
Case 2: Like the mobile handset before, they partner with manufacturers to provide Android powered gateways, STBs, gaming platforms, so on and so forth. This would be the pull approach (from the end customer perspective) and Sony as a partner makes a whole lot of sense. It is a strong contender as far as the gaming segment is concerned. Considering the large percentage of gaming applications in the Google app store, a multiple screen strategy could work wonders. However Sony is a marginal player in the STB market.
For the 3 largest manufacturers of STBs:
Motorola: There hasn’t been any mention of Android powered Motorola gateways but they could certainly be a player what with the Droid
Cisco: There has been talk of them launching a break-through STB but I haven’t seen any announcement as yet. I believe they currently use the 2Wire middleware so there should be opportunity for software providers
Pace: They have been busy integrating the Philips unit they acquired last year and then the French manufacturer Bewan earlier this year. Bewan gives them a level of control on the gateway middleware so the potential for Android may be slightly restricted.
Still, it’s just a few days count down from here on – we’re waiting.
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