In Case You Missed It: Nexus Q Exits the Play Store
Like ABC’s Animal Practice and the P’zolo, the Nexus Q has quietly exited the Google Play Store. You didn’t hear? I’m shocked! Don’t fret; you won’t miss it, nor will I. The much maligned media orb was an overpriced, feature-lacking oddity – but it sure looked cool, right?
If June of this year is too far back to recall what the Q did, here’s the short version. The Nexus Q connects to HDTVs and stereos to play your music and video purchases from Google Play and YouTube, all entirely controlled from Android phones and tablets. It had some I/O ports, and that was about it. For $299, the general consensus was a resounding hell no.
Mr. Owl, how many ways can we get our TVs to become connected? Let’s find out. If you own one of the popular gaming consoles (XBOX 360, PS3 or a Wii), you can get your Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora and other favorites. That’s three ways to get connected. Next, a Roku or Boxee device can also get your TV connected, plus play a few games to sweeten the deal (You Don’t Know Jack on Roku is game night win FYI). That makes five ways (and if you research more competitors, the list goes past a dozen). So you have over a dozen ways to watch the same exact thing, but the value proposition for the Q was you could stream your Google Play purchases and watch YouTube – nothing more. It’s easy to see now why the Q was hardly the stuff of impulse buys.
You know what else has apps for all of the above? Google TV. Yes, the other much maligned Google product does these things and is interestingly reminiscent of the redundant nuttiness that is Google's three messaging platforms – Google Talk, Google Voice and Google+ Messenger. Pick one messaging platform, Google! And while you’re at it, pick a strategy for bringing connected TV into the living room.
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