SlashGear on the curious Nexus Q reveal yesterday:
For the Nexus Q, though, we had a fancy video in the style of Apple’s promos, an awkward and overly-long demonstration of how several people can manage a shared playlist, and little in the way of context. Even just promising “like Nexus phones, there’s hugely broad potential for the Nexus Q” could’ve been enough to prevent most of the post-keynote confusion.
Instead, the functionality and longer-term intentions were left vague, and without any mention of Google TV it was difficult to see how the two products are meant to sit together. That’s disappointing, after Google worked so hard to improve the latest iteration of its smart TV product; particularly if you’re Sony and Vizio, and announced second-gen Google TV boxes this week in the run-up to Google’s event.
Google is an interesting company in that it can have a lot of focus on one thing (cloud computing) but still launch an unfocused array of products. Where does the Nexus Q fit in? It isn’t a standalone device, it must be used with an Android phone or tablet. And Android users, who aren’t exactly known for paying a premium price for anything, are expected to fork over $299 for an accessory? When they’ve just spent $199 on a Sony Google TV box?
Watching Google’s demo yesterday, it’s clear that this is another product that was made for Google employees, not the average consumer. A normal person wouldn’t want all of their friends to come over and hijack their house party’s soundtrack. People don’t actually work that way.
Video of the Nexus Q here:
