The Number of Active Google TV Users is..

google TVThere were two important developments last year that could have had a positive impact on the sales of Google TV.

First, Logitech dropped the price of their Google TV Revue box from $249 to $99 making the device much more affordable and second, the Honeycomb upgrade was rolled out that brought some popular Android Apps to your Google TV.

Logitech or Google aren’t saying how many Google TV units have they sold so far but the Android Market does offer some hints in that direction. The logic is simple.

Android Apps are now available on Google TV and some of these apps - like The Big Picture, Plex and Redux – have been developed exclusively for the Honeycomb version of Google TV. If you look at the install base of these apps (the numbers are available in the Android Market), you can get a rough idea of how popular Google TV really is?

A simple Google search - site:market.android.com intitle:google tv - reveals most of the Google TV specific apps that are currently available in the Android Market.

Some Google TV apps - like Twitter, Photos, Pandora and Napster - are factory-installed and thus there install numbers could be about the same as the total number of Google TV units that have been shipped (considering the response to Google TV, these install figures of 500k-1m are unbelievable though). Also, if you look at the 30-day install history of these apps, it is obvious that Google TV wasn’t a hit during the recent holiday season.

The other set of Google TV apps - like CNN Money, All Recipes or The Big Picture - are specific to Android 3.1 and have an installed base between 10k – 50k. This is purely unscientific but since people who have upgraded to Honeycomb are very likely to try at least one of these popular apps on their TV, my guess is the total number of active Google TV users would also be in the same 10k - 50k range.

For reference, the following chart has a big list of Android apps that are available for Google TV, their total install base and the 30-day install activity in the Android Market.

IconApp NameTotal Installs30-day History

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