Google TV officially shutting down, Android TV to reign the living room

Early adopters of Google’s living room initiative may now be in possession of obsolete hardware. Google is officially focusing its living room team on the newer Android TV, putting a freeze on further Google TV development themselves, and pulling the developer tools that other developers have relied upon to build their apps.

This news comes quietly out of a Google+ post from the Google TV and Android TV teams on the Google TV Developers Google+ page. Their reasoning is plain, Android TV is in full swing now, offering a superior experience for users – basically, the future is now, let’s live in it.

This news comes along with a ton of CES 2015 announcements, with many big names having announced adoption of Google’s new Android TV operating system. We already talked about Sony committing to bring Android TV to their 2015 line of Bravia smart TVs, but others are on deck as well.

What should you do with your old Google TV hardware? Don’t make any plans to throw it out the window just yet. Some of the devices are on track to receive an update to Android TV, bringing your hardware to the next level. Other devices, unfortunately, do not have what it takes to move forward, but rest assured that Google promises to do their part in keeping those devices running as they do today, to keep you connected with your favorite media sources and apps. Just don’t expect any new system updates, that’s all.

This move toward embedded Android TV is an exciting one for those of us shopping for a new television this year. This should be a very exciting progression for Google’s efforts as well. Google TV was decently supported by the industry, but, as evidenced today, it never garnered the level of success that many had hoped for.

If you are not in the market for a new television with Android TV on board, you can still get your hands on Android TV through the Nexus Player. Nexus Player is Google’s set-top box solution, the first consumer release Android TV device, if you do not count the ADT-1 that was handed out at Google I/O 2014.

Are you upset that Google TV is biting the dust, or is Android TV without a doubt the better solution for your needs?