Why Google decided now’s the time to move on from Chromecast
The Chromecast is going away after more than a decade in Google’s hardware portfolio, with the company phasing it out to make room for the new Google TV Streamer. In 2013, the timing was perfect for the Chromecast’s success. Most TVs of that era had rudimentary entertainment apps that were often slow, so beaming content from your phone to a TV made a lot of sense.
But times have changed. With the Chromecast with Google TV in 2020. Google pivoted in the opposite direction with a much more traditional, lean-back entertainment experience. Casting took a backseat to carousels of content recommendations, and native apps returned.
The Google TV Streamer is designed to build on that strategy by infusing Gemini AI smarts into the software. It’ll...