D-Link "plays the field" with a Yahoo Connected TV set-top box

Last week, D-Link announced a deal with Yahoo to implement that company's Connected TV in a set-top box. The D-Link/Yahoo set-top box will sell for less than $200 (U.S.) and will ship in Q2 2011. This is in addition to the D-Link Boxee Box that was released in time for last year's holiday season.

One of the major features of the latest version of Yahoo's Connected TV is its ability to integrate and interact with content coming from broadcast and cable networks. For example, at CES, Yahoo demonstrated the ability to overlay polls on live content from CBS and Showtime. For that to work, the video from a user's cable, satellite or IPTV box will have to go through the D-Link/Yahoo box. It's the same approach that Google TV uses.

Rafe Needleman of Cnet suggests that the Yahoo box shouldn't be priced much more than $49, because it doesn't offer much in the way of new content. As for D-Link, it's clearly hedging its bets on who will be the set-top box winner, but it's also adding to consumer confusion: When a customer goes into, say, Best Buy, will they be able to figure out whether to go with the D-Link Boxee or Yahoo boxes? My suspicion is that this isn't the last Internet TV system that D-Link will support.

Logitech's Google TV set-top-box price and availability date announced

According to Engadget, Logitech has announced that its Google TV set-top box, the Revue, will be priced at $299 in the U.S. and will ship on September 29th. Dish Network subscribers can purchase a single Revue at a discounted price of $179. My suspicion is that Logitech is going to have a very tough time of it this holiday season.

The Revue was clearly designed to be competitive with the last-generation Apple TV, but the new version, which will be shipping at about the same time, will be priced at $99. Roku's current-generation set-top boxes run from $59.99 to $99.99, although they have new-generation models in the pipeline that may be more expensive. Boxee's Boxee Box by D-Link has a $229.99 list price, but Amazon has it available for pre-order at $199.99.

Looking at the Logitech Revue's price, I don't see how it competes in the current environment. By basing its architecture on Intel, Google automatically made its partners vulnerable to price competition from companies using ARM processors, and that's exactly what's happening. If the price point for a viable add-on set-top box drops to $199 or less (and especially if it drops to $99), I don't see how Google TV set-top boxes will be able to compete without subsidies.