Google’s future in hardware has brought devices recognizable to everyone, even some that haven’t had much success. And one specific product has a special story: the Nexus Q. He proposed to revolutionize the field of multimedia and in the end it ended without being sold. And it served as the seed for what is now the Google Chromecast.
It’s not that Google has been too prolific in hardware, but it has different product lines that have evolved into the varied catalog that exists today. It has developed mobile phones, tablets, has watches, a home automation line which was supported by the takeover of Nest and also has media players. In fact, The Google Chromcasts are the big hit in the company’s hardware. And said success came from a device that did not materialize.
Nexus Q, ahead of its time. too advanced
Original Nexus Q sales page. Image from Archive.org
I remember Google’s first mobile, the Nexus One, in the window of an electronics store that I passed several times a week. I looked at the lines of the phone, the Google logo, I was surprised that the company, well known to the search engine, finally entered the hardware field (although still with HTC behind). Said Nexus One was the start of a saga that brought us to the modern day Pixel 7. A saga that has diversified into a multitude of product types, including multimedia devices.
It was June 2012, Google was at its flagship event for developers and it revealed not only the news of Android (4.1 Jelly Bean), but also what would be its best-selling tablet: the Nexus 7. 2012 was also the year of the presentation of Google Glass, one of the Google’s most ambitious hardware experiments. The Nexus Q reserved much of the interest for Google I/O 2012.
The media player was offered as a home device with a curious spherical design. It started with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and included access to Google Play to install apps and games from the store. Behind, the space reserved for the Nexus Q for TV connections and thus transfer audio and video to the big screen. Technically, Google has built an Android-based “set top box” to which it has decided to give a certain air of exclusivity in design and, above all, in price.
The Nexus Q was quite expensive in 2012: its selling price marked a tag of 299 dollars in the US market. Google offered accessories for the device at an equally high price; such as connection cables or speakers specially designed for the Nexus Q (and which cost more than the player itself). When everything was ready for consumers to acquire it, Google decided to cancel the sale after several extensions that ended in failure.
Google’s set-top box promised to be revolutionary with its social playback features. Music or video playlists can be loaded onto the Nexus Q for playback on the TV and/or speakers, everything from mobile. And these lists could be shared with friends, even these could access the reproduction to make their own suggestions. Is this communion between television and telephone familiar to you? This is precisely what launched Google Chromecast, a device that the company presented at the 2013 I/O, a year after the presentation of the Nexus Q.
Rise from the ashes, the key to Chromecast
Google never put the Nexus Q on sale: after the extensions, the company removed it from its store. Image from Archive.org
I could never have a Nexus One, of course, nor a Nexus Q. I did receive the first Google Chromecast, the device that marked the path of Google in the field of hardware. This seemed groundbreaking to me at the time and a great example that power isn’t everything: the software that manages the devices ends up making the difference. The simpler, the better. And if it’s cheap, the combination is a winner.
The Nexus Q was initially very advanced for the time, Google did not know how to include it in its catalog. Based on tests it conducted with users who were able to access the device, the company has not finished tweaking the characteristics and its overall performance. With another detail that marked its untimely death: the price of the Nexus Q was too high. Its manufacture contributed to this, entirely in the United States.
Despite the setback, Google has learned from its mistakes to create the best device it has ever made. And ended up evolving it to the original concept: Chromecast with Google TV are quite similar to the Nexus Q. As often in generational sagas, the dominant traits resurface sooner or later.
