New Improvements Coming as Chromecast Prepares to Go Global

[dgstorm]

To say the Chromecast is a rousing success is a bit of an understatement. It hit the market from out of nowhere like a whirlwind and quickly became the top selling Amazon device for quite some time. Now that some of the dust has settled, the Chromecast is now preparing to wow us yet again. Google's Chromecast chief Mario Queiroz recently shared that new improvements are coming for the "little device that could" (our reference), and this is in fact in preparation to take the Chromecast to the global stage.

Before Chromecast, Google struggled to gain any traction in our living rooms. Despite being a solid product, Google TV just hasn't struck a chord with the "traditional living room crowd." The Chromecast, on the other hand, makes getting streaming content to our TV much easier. The strength of the device is both in its simplicity and its focus. It aims to integrate our various media obsessions into a single, easy-to-use streamlined device. Queiroz reiterated that Google released the “Google Cast SDK” to aid developers in expanding what the Chromecast can already do. Additionally, Google plans to expand the device's reach by launching it in several more countries in 2014.

From the beginning, the Chromecast team's biggest focus while developing the device was to make it as easy as possible to use. They wanted to get as close as possible to "no user interaction at all." While that is obviously not quite possible yet, it can be easily be argued that the Chromecast comes very close to being a "one button" device to be up and running. One of the easiest ways Google has been able to determine how well they succeeded in this regard is how much their Chromecast support line is used. As it turns out, the answer to that is "not much at all." In fact, Queiroz said. "The good thing is that the phone lines were quiet. Our call centers were bored."

The future of Chromecast looks bright as it goes global and faces new challenges. Here's a quote with a few more details,

Queiroz and his team plan to stabilize the tab casting feature, which lets users send a Chrome browser tab to Chromecast. It's complicated because they've yet to figure out how to effectively buffer changes to the Web page and "cast" them to the TV.

Another big challenge is ensuring that Google properly anticipates the services offered on Chromecast as it goes international later this year. In some markets, people just want YouTube, while England, Germany, or Japan might have a more diverse selection of favorites.

How people can figure out which apps work with the dongle is yet another one that Google has begun to address on the Chromecast apps site. Queiroz also said that apps that can use the Chromecast to get your personal content, including videos, music, and photos onto your TV are often requested.

The planned Google Cast SDK will help app developers along, while Google is working with manufacturers to build more Chromecast hardware.

"It will be analogous to how we do Chromebooks and Nexus devices," Queiroz said. Hitting that sweet spot of simple design, low price, and enough apps to drive adoption won't be easy, which is why Queiroz said he's less concerned about additional Cast hardware than he is about moving into other countries.

Let us know what you think of your Chromecast and what ideas you would like to see implemented in it in the future!

Source: CNET

 

[johnomaz]

I'm still very happy with both of the devices I bought. When Plex releases the ability to cast to everyone instead of paid subscribers, it'll be a great day and it'll do everything I want it to do. Good to see its as successful as it is and that it has more success coming when it goes global.