Google and Samsung sought to stake out their claims to dominate the market for software that powers internet-connected television at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The duelling announcements intensified a tech rivalry as the “internet of things” picked apart the close partnership that the two companies have used to rule the smartphone market.
The US technology group announced that Android TV, its latest attempt to break into smart TV software after the flop of its initial Google TV technology, would be shipped on sets made by three manufacturers this year — Sony, Sharp and TP Vision, the former TV division of Philips. Reinforcing its deepening alliance with Google in living-room technology, Sony also said it would sell speakers embedded with Google Cast, enabling users to stream music direct to speakers. Google’s Cast technology was developed to stream video to TVs, but the company announced partnerships this week to extend it to music, rivalling Apple’s Airplay technology.