Nick Bilton, writing in the New York Times, reports that Google, Intel, and Sony have come together to develop a platform called Google TV.

The platform is based on Android and they plan to release a toolkit to developers within the next couple of months, with actual products appearing as early as this summer.

Google TV will allow users to watch standard television programming while also letting them view content on websites like YouTube and Hulu.

For anyone who ever gave up on the Apple TV because of it’s lack of functionality, Google TV should come as great news. This is exactly the type of competition that Apple needs to get them innovating again. The Apple TV hasn’t seen too many improvements since it was first released back in 2007. There is so much potential in devices like this, the market just needs somebody big to push it forward, Google could be that somebody.

I’m really excited to see where this connected set-top box market goes. I think Tim Cook was right, there is something there.