Google to Unveil a New Television Set-Top Box

Google is preparing to unveil a new television set-top box on Wednesday. It will challenge the likes of Amazon and Apple in the race to control digital content in the home.

During its developer conference on Wednesday, the company will show off one small set-top box that is similar to the Roku, Amazon's Fire TV, and Apple's Apple TV.

Google's device will host another company's brand name, and the new Android TV software that is designed to play movies, games and other content will power it. What's cool is the fact that users will be able to control the box through their Android smartphones, tablets or other handheld devices.

Google's television strategy will be similar to its smartphone strategy: provide key software to hardware makers to power their devices.

Its unknown whether Google will design its own version of a set-top boxes running Android TV. However, each Android powered device allows Google to display ads to generate revenue.

This is not Google's first effort to develop a set-top box. Google has offered Google TV through device makers like Logitech, Sony, Vizio, and Asus since 2010. Nexus, its own streaming-media player, never made it to the mass market.

Google most successful TV-play has been the Chromecast, a $35 dongle that allows users to stream Internet video using smartphones, tablets and computers through the chrome browser.

The Android TV is likely to include a focus on video games, which receives much play on the smartphones. A key feature of the system will be the ability to play a game on an Android smartphone and then continue where you left off on an Android-powered television at home.

Android games and other apps built for TVs are also expected to exploit the possibilities that a wider screen gives them, like a split screen for example.