Google TV Device – Sales are Negative in 2nd Quarter

Is the Market Sending a Message?

Google decided to get into the TV and Logitech International was selected to manufacture and sell the box and keyboard combination, called Revue,  that would allow users to use the Google search engine and related technology to download TV shows.



The Revue Unit - Buy and
Return It the Same Day!



Well, it hasn’t worked out so good.

Logitech International SA, which makes the Revue set-top box and special keyboard built on the search giant's technology, said Revue revenue was "slightly negative" in the latest quarter

Revenue was slightly negative!  Surely they must mean the growth was negative, that revenue was down from the previous quarter.  No.  They really mean that revenue was negative.

more units were returned than purchased.

Yep, that will do it, if more units sent back for a refund than are sent out in sales, revenue will have a minus sign around it.

Why does the company think this happened?

"There was a significant gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer," explained Logitech Chairman Guerrino De Luca, in a conference call Thursday.

No, there was no “significant gap” between price and value, there was a gap about the size of the Grand Canyon.

So what is the conclusion everyone has drawn from this

The lackluster performance of the Revue marks a setback for Google Inc.'s television ambitions.

No, a setback is when the Yankees lose to the Red Sox in extra innings. 

So in order to spur sales the company will cut the price from $249.00 to $99.00.  It did not say if it would charge $99.00 or pay consumer $99.00 to take the units off their hands. 


   
A query to the company by The Dismal Political Economist was answered by the traditional “someone will get back to you on that.”