Google looks set to enter the home entertainment system with a new music streaming system that will use Android based phones and tablets as a hub to control devices around the house.
Traditionally Google has kept away from consumer electronics, with brief attempts at producing mobile phones being short lived (Nexus One for example). However the recent takeover of mobile phone giant Motorola suggests that they are prepared to step into new markets.
By deciding to go into the home entertainment market Google will be coming up against some of the biggest brands in the world, with makers such as Sony and Phillips their competition. More intriguingly it will pit them against Apple when it comes to acting as a music hub.
Google vs Apple Hubs
Apple have used their previous dominance of the smart phone and tablet computing markets to good effect in positioning themselves in home entertainment systems. Apple TV, for example, is a method of allowing normal TVs to play Youtube clips and online music and video, by streaming it from an Apple iPhone or iPad.
But the Google Android operating software has recently managed to grasp a 50% marketshare on smart phone operating systems, and is fast gaining ground on the iPad dominance of the tablet computing market place with fast selling products such as the Amazon Kindle Fire.
This positions it well as a software in allowing hardware to be created for it – the large number of Android based phones and tablets means that it is worth such producers creating products specifically for the software.
It also means that there is a strong financial incentive for Google to do so themselves. Not only is there the money to be gained from selling such items, but by enhancing the Android experience and brand they ensure future Android sales, potentially impacting on the iPhone.
What is the System?
So the question is – what is it that we are going to be seeing from Google’s first major step into the consumer electronics marketplace?
The system is for streaming music over the Internet (using Google’s recently launched music player), and connecting it to Google designed speakers and other devices. The plans seem to suggest that it would be undercutting the high end devices that are currently dominating the market place, putting them within affordable reach of millions more people.
They can be synced up with home entertainment systems designed by Google, or, reports suggest, your present home systems via basic ‘music out’ connections, so you aren’t tied into to proprietary systems.
Because the service will be run by connections to the cloud, enabling streaming of the music, you will of course need an internet connection. This shouldn’t be worry for most 3G enabled phones and devices these days.
Most carriers will have affordable options for anyone to take advantage of this, with special offers and deals at the lower end still able to tap into the new Google plans. Check special deals such as the Sprint promo code to help get you the best deals on phones that will be compatible with the new Google hub.