Google announces new Google TV partners

Soon after Marvell announced its partnership with Google for the use of ARMADA 1500 in Google TV devices, Google has officially detailed the list of new partners for TV solutions.  According to a blog post, LG, Vizio, MediaTek, Marvell (already talked), Samsung and Sony (existing) will now be making hardware for Google TV. Most of the mentioned companies will be showcasing their products at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show.

First talking about the chip-makers, it seems Marvell isn’t the only one, MediaTek has also come on-board and its chipsets will surely help in bringing out much cheaper Google TV boxes.

On the other hand, LG seems to be using its own L9 chipset in company’s 3D Google TV.  So altogether, there are three chipmakers on-board unless Samsung also decides to choose its own chips rather than using Marvell or MediaTek.

Coming to television manufacturers, Sony has decided to stick with Google for at least one more year, and will be showing Google TVs next week. Company also plans to launch these devices in global market later this year. Until now, Google TV has been limited to US only.

Joining Sony will be Samsung, LG and Vizio. Vizio and Sony have confirmed to launch their TV products at CES, Samsung might release its later. With the all new partners, Google TV’s future does look promising but real test will be when these devices hit the market.

In other news, Google has said that Google TV activations have more than doubled after the Honeycomb aka TV 2.0 update.