Google announced Tuesday its Google TV devices will be able to access customized apps through the Android Market in just a couple of months.

Google TV will also be running on the new 3.1 version of Honeycomb later this summer.

Made-for-TV websites have been part of Google TV's value proposition since its launch, as have onboard apps including Netflix, Twitter, Pandora, Napster and more. However, today's announcement means devs can make and sell apps for Google TV through the Android Market.

Google first unveiled Google TV at its I/O event last year. In spite of impressive demos, the company was said to be delaying a launch because of software tweaks in December 2010. And given the company's underwhelming marketing and education efforts for the product — and stiff competition from the user-friendly and dead cheap Roku — many have wondered whether Google TV might flop.

However, the new availability of apps for Google TV means that more developers will be enticed to build more apps for Google TV. These third-party applications could give a much-needed boost to Google TV's publicity and perhaps even its user experience.

As Google TV Product Manager Rishi Chandra stated earlier this year, "We plan to bring developers tools for building applications specifically for the TV and living room, and we plan to bring Android Market to Google TV, so consumers can download thousands of applications to their TVs."

As was the case with the original Android mobile OS, Google's projects often get off to a rough start. They're launched early and require a good deal of support from the developer community to achieve that consumer-friendly polish to which end users are accustomed. And just like the powerful new Androids are miles from their practically unusable forebears, a more open, collaborative Google TV platform stands to compete well in the market of connected television devices.

We'll keep a close eye on Google TV — especially on the the movement of product from store to living room. We're sure Google is hoping these announcements and product enhancements will have a net positive effect on sales; time alone will tell if a year of relative dormancy has already hurt the platform's image too much.

Mashable's Google I/O Coverage