CES 2006: Will there be a 'Google PC?' And why?

Las Vegas (NV) - Newspapers around the world, and even local TV news stations, trumpeted this morning as the time when Google would launch a type of "personal search appliance," or as some anticipate, a "Google PC." But the Friday morning news cycle is already over, as far as the East Coast is concerned, and Google’s news this morning thus far is that the company is partnering with Motorola for the licensing of search tools for its cell phones.

A prepared statement released this morning during the normal news cycle characterized the search tool as enabling Motorola handset users to more readily access personal location and directional information, such as finding out which restaurant within walking distance is the best reviewed.

But a groundbreaking announcement of some sort could still come at 4 pm Pacific time (7 pm ET) today, when Google founder and president Larry Page addresses the Consumer Electronics Show for its final keynote address. Google certainly has the cash flow, the wherewithal, and that certain swagger that a big company gets, especially a young one. Speculation about such a direct move into the hardware space has sent Google stock value soaring in recent days, especially in the wake of a Bear Stearns analyst comment that the company could become known primarily as a hardware manufacturer in just a few years’ time.

From the other side of the tavern comes speculation that Page’s speech this afternoon will focus on the company’s newly forged partnerships, such as the one announced today with Motorola, and the content licensing deal announced Wednesday with the new CBS Corporation, fresh from its spinoff from former parent Viacom. The CBS deal will take Google into the on- demand, pay-per-view content delivery market, going up against rivals Apple and Microsoft.

Partnerships such as these have typified the way Google has expanded its brand presence since its days as a Stanford University research project. Although Google does continue to produce a server-based search appliance, it would be contrary to Google’s established pattern for it to actually direct and control the manufacturer of a consumer appliance, when it can easily partner with others who might be very willing to do the job for it.

Besides, the oft-heard question throughout the history of CES - "Where’s the value-add ?" - could apply to the situation of a Google PC. Google may already have enough brand presence on people’s desktops, and now mobile handsets, for it to bother extending that presence into a new category of media device - one which consumers have typically rejected since the late 1970s. (You can look up the history of Warner Amex’s Qube project, as well as Oracle’s later forays into such ventures, ironically, on Google.) Still, stranger things have happened, as our discovery yesterday of the Samsung refrigerator indicates.

Exclusive coverage of CES 2006 continues throughout the day, from TG Daily and the network of TG Publishing.