Google has its Nexus-brand tablet and smartphones and thought it could get into the home audio market with a wireless music streamer dubbed the Nexus Q.
Maybe Google knows what it’s doing in the tablet and smartphones businesses, but when it comes to home audio, someone at Google wasn’t paying attention.
And so the company has postponed the July availability of the Nexus Q to make it “even better.” It’s giving the devices free to consumers who preordered the original.
In an email to consumers who preordered, Google attributed the postponement to “initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today.”
For a planned $299, it had better do more. Far less expensive devices do a lot more at a lower price.
At $299 with embedded two-channel amplifier, the Q streams YouTube video as well as music, TV shows, and movies purchased from Google Play and stored in the Cloud. It also streams music, but not video, from an Android-powered tablet or smartphone, which is the only means of accessing all of the Q’s functionality.
Your tablet or smartphone also directs music to multiple Nexus Q devices in multiple rooms of the house.
Far less expensive devices, in contrast, access a much wider range of Internet music and video services, and they’ll stream audio and video stored not only in the Cloud but also from your networked PC. Take the $49 Roku LT set-top box or the $99 Apple TV with AirPlay, though both lack embedded amp. Jeez, Google TV boxes access plenty of content sources in the Cloud and will be priced down to $99 for a new Vizio model.
As for distributing music wirelessly throughout the house, there are Sonos speakers and AirPlay speakers at about the same price, and those products include speakers.
Market research, anyone?
Google has its Nexus-brand tablet and smartphones and thought it could get into the home audio market with a wireless music streamer dubbed the Nexus Q.
Maybe Google knows what it’s doing in the tablet and smartphones businesses, but when it comes to home audio, someone at Google wasn’t paying attention.
And so the company has postponed the July availability of the Nexus Q to make it “even better.” It’s giving the devices free to consumers who preordered the original.
In an email to consumers who preordered, Google attributed the postponement to “initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today.”
For a planned $299, it had better do more. Far less expensive devices do a lot more at a lower price.
At $299 with embedded two-channel amplifier, the Q streams YouTube video as well as music, TV shows, and movies purchased from Google Play and stored in the Cloud. It also streams music, but not video, from an Android-powered tablet or smartphone, which is the only means of accessing all of the Q’s functionality.
Your tablet or smartphone also directs music to multiple Nexus Q devices in multiple rooms of the house.
Far less expensive devices, in contrast, access a much wider range of Internet music and video services, and they’ll stream audio and video stored not only in the Cloud but also from your networked PC. Take the $49 Roku LT set-top box or the $99 Apple TV with AirPlay, though both lack embedded amp. Jeez, Google TV boxes access plenty of content sources in the Cloud and will be priced down to $99 for a new Vizio model.
As for distributing music wirelessly throughout the house, there are Sonos speakers and AirPlay speakers at about the same price, and those products include speakers.
Market research, anyone?
