Chromecast launched has received great adoption and support for being a new product, but Google is betting on 2014 being the year of its HDMI dongle’s success. The Search Giant is looking to make some big steps this coming year. Opening the SDK and offering more international support is in the plans, but there could be more than that coming!
Open SDK and international support
Developers have only been able to access the beta SDK for Chromecast so far. In 2014, the company promises to take the SDK off-beta and offer full third-party support. There is no set dates or time frames, but we can be pretty sure this will happen in 2014. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The promise of more international support also stands. Of course, there are the service limitations. For example, Netflix doesn’t work in many countries. Having more Chromecast apps available across the world is still great news, though.
More Chromecast apps coming
Third-party developers haven’t been able to fully distribute Chroemcast-supported apps just yet, but this is changing with the release of the full SDK. Google VP of Product Management Mario Queiroz mentioned in an interview that more waves of apps are coming soon. He mentions “hundreds of developers have signed up,” so Chromecast support won’t be lacking once the SDK is out.
There is good news for Chromecast users, though. Mario Queiroz is also mentioning Google will release a few more waves of Chromecast supported apps before the SDK is released! A plethora of new apps has just been released, making the $35 dongle a great investment. Things will only get better from now on!
Chromecast coming to more devices
Now let’s get into the interesting stuff. Google VP of Product Management goes into a topic that we didn’t think much about, but it makes complete sense. Instead of focusing on Google/Android TV as a platform, Gogole may find more success making Chromecast and Cast a feature.
It seems Google is planning to expand its horizons by making Chromecast featured in other devices, and this doesn’t mean just other Chromecast dongles. Imagine if your TV came with Google Cast built-in. Or maybe you could purchase a Blu-Ray player that came with Chromecast capabilities.
Sounds amazing, right? This is what Google could be doing in 2014. In fact, Queiroz says they have been having “serious conversations” with multiple manufacturers. Who will be the first manufacturer to feature Cast-enabled devices?
The future looks bright for Chroemcast
If you haven’t yet, you should just jump in the Chromecast bandwagon. The device is only $35 and it will only get better with time. Mario Queiroz believes it will become a standard – users will expect applications to have Chromecast support at some point.
We couldn’t agree more. We are already looking at what apps could use Chromecast functionality. And what makes everything better is that we are not limited to streaming apps, many apps could take advantage of Cast support. We have seen Google Drive and TicTacToe use the Chromecast in very unique ways, for example.
With that said, which apps would you like to see getting Chromecast support?
[gigaom]
