A Google-Free CES?

Google’s TV ambitions may take a back seat at next month’s CES.

It has been rumored that several TV makers — including LG Electronics — are gearing up to announce new Google TV 2.0 products at the annual Vegas shindig.

But an industry source tells me that while they may show Google-based products in their booths, the big consumer-electronics companies will downplay their Google partnerships. “They don’t want CES to be about Google,” the source says. Google-based TVs and other products will be officially announced at some point after CES, according to the exec.

That’s a reasonable stance, given the DOA reception that Google TV 1.0 received (see Logitech Kills Google TV-Based Set-Top). It remains to be seen what traction the “smart TV” category can really pick up — including Apple’s rumored years-in-development TV set (see More Pay-TV Subs Rent VOD Movies Than Users Of Internet Devices: Study and Steve Jobs: HDTVs Are a Bad Business).

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