Google is set to become a major irritant to several TV brands including Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic with the search Company confirming at the weekend their intent to release globally their $35 Chromecast dongle that circumvents the Smart TV functions built into a manufacturers TV.
The device could also hurt attempts by free to air TV stations to muscle into the Internet TV business.
The dongle which can be moved from a TV to a notebook allows users to instantly buy movies, books, games from the Google Play Store while accessing tens of thousands of apps.
Recently brands such as Samsung and LG moved to expand their Smart TV offering with the introduction of credit card transaction engines, they have also built out engines that allow advertising to be streamed to a TV screen bypassing normal free to air TV advertising.
The Google dongle has a built in payment gateway and can deliver Google video content direct to a TV.
Late last week Google’s vice president of product management, Mario Queiroz,said that Google has big plans for the streaming attachment with the search Company set to increase both the number of apps and services that work with the attachment, as well as the features developers can have access to.
Queiroz said that Google’s plan is to make Chromecast available around the world including Australia ahead of a push to have publishers in other countries such as Australia make their apps compatible with the device.
Google, Queiroz said, would like to make the device the basis of an international streaming standard.
“We are going to be launching in a number of international markets,” Queiroz said. “There will be an expectation from consumers that any and every app will be ‘castable.'”
Google is planning to release an open SDK for the Chromecast standard. Already, Google has added compatibility with Vevo, Plex, and a number of other apps. The SDK is, as yet, incomplete, but Queiroz says that “hundreds of developers” have signed up to add compatibility to their apps.
The device that can be plugged into a current media centre is set to deliver streaming and mirroring capability to several other devices. Google hopes to bring what Queiroz referred to as “Google Cast” to devices made by other manufacturers.
Queiroz said that Google had initially intended to build a very simple device, a fact many say shows in the device’s design and cost.
Priced at just $35, the Chromecast quickly exhausted supply once it went on sale in the USA. A free Netflix subscription had to be removed as a throw-in offer while Netflix generated more codes to meet demand.
Chromecast was a rare success for Google as their prior attempts with Google TV have failed.
Now Google appears on the verge of a larger push into the living room with the Company set to make several major announcements at the 2014 CES Show.
