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Google is really developing a reputation for starting and canning projects. I’d recommend not getting too invested in their products when possible.
by abootstrapper 8y ago
Google is really developing a reputation for starting and canning projects. I’d recommend not getting too invested in their products when possible.
- mmmmmmmmm 8y agoEvery company discontinues products. There's a reason you can't buy this thing anymore: https://keyassets-p2.timeincuk.net/wp/prod/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2017/02/first-mobile-phone-1202x1620.jpg https://keyassets-p2.timeincuk.net/wp/prod/wp-content/upload...
- ergothus 8y agoI've steered clear of a few now, both in tech and as a consumer. I've been burned too many times by the same company here.
- disishhsha 8y agoDo they really do this more than other companies? Does the average successful company make a habit of keeping unsuccessful products around?
- azurezyq 8y agoApple discontinued ipod nano, what's the difference here? Consumer electronics come and go, just following the market trend.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pugz 8y agoThe iPod Nano lasted 12 years. The Chromecast Audio lasted 3 and a bit.
- azurezyq 8y agoiPod is a successful one. Chromecast audio is not. How long do you want to keep a not successful product around if you own the company? My girlfriend poured so much love in her iPhone SE and it seems like... discontinued.
- jhall1468 8y agoJudging by the comments here, if anyone uses a service they expect a company to provide support for it indefinitely. And apparently that also applies to hardware.
- Dylan16807 8y agoThey're still supporting this device for now, so no complaints yet. But when I buy a piece of hardware I absolutely expect it to work for at least ten years. When did that become unreasonable? The base scenario is that it works standalone and it'll keep working for many years. If you choose to involve a server, then you have a responsibility to keep the server up for an extended period. If it's a legacy product then the number of users will continually drop and the cost to keep a couple servers up will be minuscule.
- mattlondon 8y agoIt probably became unreasonable to expect decade-long support on something that costs $15-$20.
- DanBC 8y agoI have literally hundreds of things that cost $15 to $20, and many of those are over ten years old and still work fine. Obviously they have a lifespan and the quality of cheap products can be quite poor, so there are items that broke and got thrown away. But there's nothing that stopped working because the manf told me I couldn't use it any more.
- Symbiote 8y agoIt's reasonable to expect it to function until normal wear-and-tear breaks it. After that, it's reasonable to expect it could be repaired at some cost. However, it depends on a Google service — it won't work without a working Internet connection. This idea is fairly new for consumers.
- eanzenberg 8y agoProbably the difference between hardware and software. If apple canned airplay I'd be pretty pissed. They discontinued their routers but I still use their airport extreme to good effect.
- dragonwriter 8y ago> Probably the difference between hardware and software Uh, but it's hardware in both cases; Chromecast Audio is a particular model of hardware Cast receiver. > If apple canned airplay I'd be pretty pissed. Yes, that would be like Google killing Google Cast. Which they are decidedly not doing.
- ViViDboarder 8y agoOne relies on server support and multiple clients supporting it. The other does not. I have an old iPod nano sitting in a box that still works as good as the day it was bought. It’s possible that a few years from now the Chromecast Audio will be nothing more than a paperweight, and it’s a bit light for that.
- bubblethink 8y agoHeh. These are all paperweights. The nano was one when it was new. You needed itunes to use it. No way to transfer music to it (at least on linux at that time; maybe people hacked it later). I remember I won one in some contest, and was excited until I plugged it in. End of excitement.
- teddyfrozevelt 8y agoThey're still supporting the Chromecast Audio though. They're just discontinuing an old hardware product, which really isn't out of the ordinary.
- fiblye 8y agoApple discontinues products and replaces them with something else. Google's more in the habit of announcing a new service, saying it's great and revolutionary, then dumping it a few years down the line with a brief notice beforehand. The iPod line just ended up superseded by phones. Google Wave, Google Plus, Google Code, Inbox (this one I'd get alerts for after every Gmail login saying it's the next step for gmail and I should switch... it just never happened), Google Video, Google Reader, and more just vanished.
- thanatos_dem 8y agoIt’s a natural byproduct of always looking for the next big thing, no? You need to take chances and try new things, and not all of them work out.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- notatoad 8y agoThis is the HN bubble. They only have this reputation among nerds who are still angry about losing Google Reader. Go ask any normal person if Google has a reputation for discontinuing products, and they won't know what you're talking about. Also, i don't know who out there is heavily invested in a $35 audio dongle. I love mine, but it still works just as well today as it did yesterday and not being able to order more isn't causing me any anxiety.
- burtonator 8y agoSerious question... is there a list of Google created products vs products they purchased? The only two successful Google consumer products are gmail and maps... almost everything else they acquired.
- njarboe 8y agoForgot Google search/Adwords. Its what "googling" means. :)
- dehrmann 8y agoHalf credit for Adwords; Adsense (the other side of Adwords) was an acquisition.
- darren_ 8y agogoogler. This one always comes up a lot for some reason (I really don't understand what point is being made), but I'll point out that maps was actually acquired. But, it's been so long since that it's been a) thoroughly ship of theseus-ed such that I'd be surprised if there's more than minor fragments of the original codebase remaining and b) sprouted large new features that are under the 'maps' umbrella but could easily be standalone apps in their own right (example: public transit support in google maps; there's a whole marketplace of apps that just do that). Similarly for docs, android, etc - maybe they were started with an acquisition but given the amount of change and work done on top of that: so what?
- pxeboot 8y ago
- kllrnohj 8y agoNo projects were canned here. The 3-something year old hardware dongle is no longer being made, that's it. That's the entirety of the news. The Cast project as a whole is not being canned. Cast-enabled speakers, receivers, etc... are all still widely available from a wide number of manufacturers, that's not changing.
- pishpash 8y agoGoogle already canned Miracast support and will do the same with whatever Chromecast protocol it's using now, meaning these abandoned devices are as good as dead soon. Google breaks device casting capability over and over so for years now Android casting has never reliably worked when AirPlay works perfectly. How's that for anti-consumer behavior and shooting yourself in the foot?
- kllrnohj 8y ago> Google already canned Miracast support 5 years ago and the entire industry followed suit if they ever even supported it in the first place. > will do the same with whatever Chromecast protocol it's using now, meaning these abandoned devices are as good as dead soon. Seeing as Google still sells a handful of products, and just released a brand new product, that uses the Chromecast protocol I'm gonna call bullshit on this claim. > Google breaks device casting capability over and over so for years now Android casting has never reliably worked when AirPlay works perfectly. Chromecast has been rock solid for half a decade. It works so well that Vizio uses it nearly exclusively for their TV lineup and has for a few years now. Chromecast has been a massive success. Your claim is wildly out of touch at best, if not just outright FUD.
- computerex 8y agoWonder why I have to use a cast-enabled speaker when I have $2k speakers that I enjoy.
- kllrnohj 8y agoGet a cast-enabled amplifier then? Sony's receivers cast built-in, for example. But you realize how extremely niche your problem is, right? That there clearly aren't enough of people in your particularly situation who also want a dongle that haven't already bought one?
- pishpash 8y agoGoogle likes to self-sabotage, what can I say? Chromecast Audio is one of the few products in recent years that added real value to the Android platform and finally made easy, cheap high-quality audio casting possible (vs. shitty Bluetooth casting on Echo). The Home app is shit and needs a simpler interface but the fundamentals are good. The only problem was it was priced wrong at $30. At $15 it was a no-brainer. Maybe that's a loss for Google but it's one of the best candidates to get the masses into the Google ecosystem, and eventually upgrade to the full Chromecast and other devices. They really blew it here. The same thing repeats over and over at Google. Great fundamentally well engineered products, only to blow it all at the last moment when it is about to catch on with the consumer. It's like Googlers have an aversion with human contact and prefer to retreat when they get too close.
- pishpash 8y agoThey think there is no cost to this, but there is. The company is losing long-term platform support.
- Mikeb85 8y agoChromecast audio is a casting device. You can still cast to Google Home speakers, or to a Chromecast TV. They're canning a product which is limited and has replacements in the rest of their product line.
- jdietrich 8y agoIn this case, I don't think it's necessarily a big issue and it certainly isn't the abandonment of a platform. There is now an enormous range of third-party products with built-in Chromecast support. It's entirely plausible that Google looked at the current market for Chromecast devices and concluded that the Chromecast Audio was no longer necessary. It was already a somewhat niche device, but it has only become more niche as third-party support has grown. https://www.google.com/chromecast/built-in/audio/ https://www.google.com/chromecast/built-in/audio/