A new Chromecast is coming. If you look around at what folks want from it, it’s all about performance and speed. Basically, a lot of folks want a high-end Chromecast, but it doesn’t seem like Google is planning for that, and it seems unlikely they ever will.
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The Chromecast with Google TV is a $50 streaming dongle that’s always been meant to be cheap. In lieu of buying a new TV, it can bring Google TV to your living room or wherever else you’ve got an HDMI input. That’s always been the goal, and Google really reinforced that with the 2022 release of Chromecast with Google TV (HD), an even cheaper streamer meant to upgrade spare rooms and such.
Google has a pretty clear strategy here, it’s just not the one that people seemingly want to hear.
The idea of Chromecast has been, since its debut back in 2013, to offer a cheap way to put content on your TV. And it’s still rather good at that.
And, frankly, Google is probably right to go down that route. Chromecast with Google TV has, seemingly, been successful in the market, and that’s likely thanks in large part to its price point. It’s affordable for most people, but still capable enough to get just about anything done.
Devices like Shield TV serve a niche market, and the Shield does that better than Google could ever hope to. The Apple TV has similarly established itself in this premium space. The only real example we have to compare to so far is Amazon, which has the Fire TV Cube as a high-performance streamer. And, frankly, when’s the last time you heard anyone talking about that?
Very often, Google’s effort with the Chromecast ends up getting compared to those high-end streaming devices, and it’s just because Google doesn’t actually have a true competitor.
Should it? I think that’d be great.
I’ve been asking for a “Pixel Player” for a long time now. But I’m just not convinced Google has any desire to do that. And I’m not even sure Google would be well-suited for that. The high-end entertainment space doesn’t put up well with inconsistencies and bugs, and those might as well be the tagline for Google’s smart home efforts. At least for now, Google’s streaming efforts just feel so much better suited to the low-to-mid-range markets.
Will Google ever release a truly high-end Chromecast? If I had to put money on it, I’d say no. Google seems perfectly comfortable in the affordable space, and given the real money in this market is in the TV sets themselves, Google can sit back and let its partners deliver those high-end experiences to people who want them most.
In the meantime, the upcoming sequel to Chromecast with Google TV we reported on this week has some clear options to improve on its predecessor without breaking the budget. A better chip, more memory, and more storage would go a long way to improving the experience for everyone, and I’m excited to see that.
This Week’s Top Stories
The Pixel Tablet is getting a keyboard, and Google has more Nest coming
This week saw a few key leaks around Google hardware. For one, we reported that Google is working on new Nest Hub devices and a new Nest Audio. There’s little indication as to when these are set to arrive, but it’ll be the first refresh to these form factors in a couple of years.
Beyond that, retail listings revealed that Google is about to “re-launch” the Pixel Tablet without the need of buying the dock, and also preparing new keyboard and stylus accessories.
Android Auto finally rolled out its new settings
Two years after they were first discovered, Google finally remembered it had redesigned the settings menu for Android Auto and rolled it out with the latest update. Huzzah!
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