As we noted following the Google TV announcement this spring, one of the many interesting things surrounding Google’s foray into Internet TV isn’t simply its building of the product, but its commitment to building a developer ecosystem around it. And in an attempt to get more people interesting in building Google TV apps, the company announced today that it is giving away 10,000 Google TV devices to “help developers start building for TV.”
The Google TV platform is built on the Android OS. Unlike Apple TV, Google TV describes itself as an Internet platform, not a hardware-based system.
Google describes this as a “new opportunity for creativity” but it’s also a new distribution channel for apps. Google gave out more than 3000 devices to attendees at the Adobe MAX conference, and it plans to offer thousands to the Google Code community as well. If you are a developer who doesn’t fall into either of those categories, you can submit an entry to the Google TV Web Developer Promotion – Google plans to select 2500 winners to receive their free device.
