Because Google is doing a poor job of promoting their own platforms. Tablets, watches and TV fail to get any traction with devs or users. It's a chicken and egg kind of problem but I think Google's lack of dev support is the biggest factor. All the normal UI APIs are built around smartphones. So apps on tablets look like giant smartphone apps with tiny buttons and text, smartwatch apps get ignored altogether and TV requires UI that is scaled like a phone but on displays similar to tablets BUT without touch.

Google's laissez-faire attitude toward their platforms is killing their ability to compete anywhere but with phones.

Google uses a “see what sticks” approach. It’s an ok approach for free web services like Google Maps or Google Wave because the consumer hasn’t invested anything other than their own time. But for consumer devices that people have to shell out money for, its a lot less consumer friendly. They’re asking the consumer to shoulder the risk.

Consumer devices require a vision and commitment from the company. This means you have to pull in marketing, sales, hardware, software, partners early on and get everyone aligned.

The lack of coordination caused a few problems

• Developers weren’t given the impression by marketing that google was going to treat this any differently than their previous and so they didn’t immediately develop for it
• consumers weren’t given the impression by marketing that google was going to treat this any differently than their previous products and didn’t jump at buying it
• the nexus player was buggy and googling it brought up a number of complaints about jitteriness and bugs. The development team wasn’t dedicated to making the nexus player a great product and providing timely bug fixes which impacted consumer and developer confidence in the product.
• The shield is a great device but the value prop is confusing. If you’re into gaming and willing to spend some money, you might as well buy a PlayStation 4 and if you want a great smart TV device you could buy a cheaper Roku, Apple TV, or even chrome cast.
• The google services teams weren’t given clear direction, mandate, and budget to keep Android TV apps up to date.

In the end, this and other things add up to a lack of consumer confidence in the device and the feeling that it’s been abandoned.

There is new devices announced almost every day https://twitter.com/androidtv_rumor

I use my Shield TV on a daily basis and it's perfect as-is in my opinion. They don't need to refresh it every 6 months to keep me interested.

Thank Google for zero support

Well it's because how this market works - outside a very very tiny group of people, everyone else buys either a SmartTV with all the functionality integrated or gets a preconfigured STB from their cable provider. In second case, they're locked into that STB since most IPTV or Cable providers don't really want you to bring your own device.

Hence Google efforts are targeted towards persuading OEMs and cable providers to build their STBs on top of ATV - see Sony, Phillips and bunch of cable STBs announced this year. Convincing Sony to base their TVs on ATV probably put that OS in hands of more customers than ShieldTV, MiBox and Nexus Player combined.

For everyone else, there's ShieldTV and Chromecast ;)

They are about to launch google tv with the new pixel player.

There is nothing wrong with Android TV. Its the people like you who often compare Android TV to Mobiles/Mobile OS like Android and get confused. They are both extremely different segments.

Same can be said about Apple TV. Apple advertises and even media coverage in general is million times higher for iPhones than Apple TV.

Google's strategy for Android TV is working extremely well (just have a look at how many Telcos are adopting Android TV for their STBs) and there is no reason either for Google or us consumers to worry about the future of Android TV.

Android TV seems dead because there's no mass-market low-cost version of it, coupled with the lack of a global Amazon Video app.

Google can't do anything about the app, but Roku can get almost their entire library of apps working on a $30 device (with a remote!), but Google's closest device in that region requires another device to function (tablet/smart phone).

Yes, most people in the know have both of those on hand. But the mass market still is used to using a remote rather than a smartphone/tablet as a matter of preference. And a global matter of preference is not spending $150 for full functionality when competitors exist that cost $30.

It feels like the entire line of Pixel devices is a poor choice for Google. Everything is designed to be "premium" and high-cost, but that's hard to justify when a device not so focused on the purity of the platform costs half (or less!) as much with greater everyday functionality.

Google don't market Android either... it's an OS that they licence out to phone and TV manufacturers, who then market it in their own way.

Feels so dead because even Google don't want it right now. No clue why but they are doing it with many things. Just look at the 20 chat apps they have. Maybe at some point we'll get a rebrand like with Android Wear / WearOS and they "revive" this project.

Google doesn't even have a product to show the new developer preview. They have 4 devices for the Android P preview but 0 for Android TV P. Also the best Android TV device doesn't even run the latest version from summer last year.

Android TV sucks. Does anyone think their tv is going to get support for the lifetime they own it? I don't know how long you guys plan on keeping your TV's but I'm probably holding on to mine for 5+ years