Nexus Q gets removed from Google Nexus page, may be abandoned
Google announced quite a number of things in its blog posts yesterday, and although most of the previously rumored devices were announced, there was once piece of hardware that was missing. Most probably didn’t notice, due to the fact that it wasn’t a very big deal even when it was first announced, but the Nexus Q was nowhere to be found in Google’s announcements. While this won’t effect most people, I for one am disappointed that Google seems to have abandoned their “Social Streaming” device.
Now, this isn’t to say that the Nexus Q was a great piece of hardware when it was first announced. On the contrary, the odd spherical streaming device was much too expensive, and had only some basic feature that could have been replicated elsewhere, and ultimately caused Google to, in essence, take back the announcement. However, I still liked the idea of a Nexus media streaming device, especially after it was demoed running CyanogenMod.
Unfortunately, not only was the device (or an updated version) not mentioned in Google’s announcements, it was also removed from Google’s official Nexus landing page when the site was updated to reflect the new Nexus devices. It can still be found in the Play Store after a bit of looking, but the page bears the discouraging message that “This device is not for sale at this time.” This may be a very subtle indicator, but it is an indicator no less. It seems to me that the Nexus Q is becoming yet another one of Google’s famous abandoned projects, and that Google itself is trying to let the device fade into the past.
There are a few potential reasons that Google might try to kill off the Nexus Q, not the least of which being Google TV. Google is still pushing Google TV, and it does have some similar features to the Nexus Q, while offering access to a wider variety of content. Of course, the service is much more complicated than the Q was supposed to be, and many thought that it too was being killed off. So, it is also possible that Google decided that there simply wasn’t a market for the Nexus Q, since it is possible to replicate most of the features with existing hardware and even other Google products.
Whatever the reason, I’m still a bit disappointed to see the Nexus Q fall by the wayside. Perhaps Google will pick it back up in the future, but for now it seems that the Nexus Q is pretty much gone. I am a bit disappointed, but also interested to hear whether the rest of the population feels the Nexus Q was a good idea or not, so go ahead and leave your opinions in the comments.
[Google]
