The move, similar to its Android phone practice, would bring more developers on board.
Google gave away 3,000 GoogleTVs yesterday at the AdobeMAX (ADBE) conference. The search giant plans on distributing 10,000 GoogleTVs overall in the coming months, according to a post on Google’s Code blog. At least 2,500 of those are going to be given away to developers who submit an interesting website idea for GoogleTV. The rest, around 4,500 by my math, are going to be given to existing Google Code superstars.
For developers, building websites for TV is a new opportunity for creativity and provides a distribution channel to reach users in a new way. For users, better and more interesting websites mean that the overall Google TV experience gets even better. We know that developers must be at the heart of our ecosystem, building cool experiences for audiences to watch and enjoy, and we want to encourage a new generation of TV developers to come forward. Which is why, over the next few weeks, we are planning to give away 10,000 Google TV devices to help developers start building for TV.
The post didn’t stipulate what kind of GoogleTV would be given out, but they will likely be Logitech (LOGI) Revues, which retail for $299.
The move is similar to Google’s (GOOG) strategy in Android phones. Google has given away Nexus Ones, EVOs and Droids at various developer conferences over the past two years. The response seems to have been good. The Android Market just recently passed 100,000 apps, second only to the Apple App Store in less than two years in existence and Android phones are selling pretty well too.