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Google casts about for wireless audio
Chocolate Factory-powered speakers on the way from Sony, Denon
Google casts about for wireless audio Google in your speakers – what could possibly go wrong with that? Google’s Chromecast legitimised the market for small HDMI nubbins that stream content from mobile devices into tellies. Now the company’s making the same technology a platform for audio equipment makers to embed in speakers.
Google Cast Audio, to give the new product its full name, won’t be sold direct to punters. Instead, audio equipment makers – Sony, Denon and LG are first off the rank – will bake Google’s tech into their kit and label them as equipped with Google Cast. Owners of Android devices or computers with the appropriate plugins will then be able to beam audio to those speakers over WiFi.
This new arrangement has obvious potential to create a nice little ecosystem for Google in which Android devices become more attractive as Google Cast Audio pops up in more devices. Apple, notably, isn’t doing similar things. And let’s not mention the pain of DLNA in polite company, shall we?
Google’s not had enormous success on this path in the past, as its TV efforts hardly set the world on fire. Tune in to future episodes to see if this one’s a hit, or never even grazes the lower reaches of the charts. ®