Google has made good on its promise to move on from its line-up of Chromecast with Google TV dongles, with the online Google Store selling through its remaining inventory of the devices.
The dongles have been replaced on Google’s end by the Google TV Streamer, a $100 device that includes artificial intelligence and a hub for home smart devices like lights, doorbells and surveillance cameras. The Chromecast with Google TV offered some of the same features, priced around $35 for a variant that streamed content in high definition and $50 for an ultra high-definition (UHD/4K) model.
When Google introduced the Google TV Streamer late last year, the company affirmed it would continue to offer the Chromecast with Google TV for sale, but would not make anymore of those devices. Instead, it would allow customers to buy whatever inventory remained — and once that inventory was gone, it was gone for good.
That has, apparently, now happened, with the Google Store website in the United States listing both versions of the Chromecast with Google TV as “unavailable” to purchase. The device remains available in some brick-and-mortar and online retailers like Walmart, Target and Amazon, though none of those retailers are receiving new inventory. On eBay, some resellers are offering the $35 version of the Chromecast with Google TV for more than three times that price.
The original Chromecast device helped establish a market for no-frills streaming TV gadgets that allowed users to watch content from Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube on regular TVs. Over time, smart TVs became more-prevalent in living rooms, but the Chromecast with Google TV still found a market among streamers who wanted something portable for travel or who desired access to apps and services that weren’t available on platforms like Roku and Apple TV.
Some low-cost Google TV devices are still on the market, including two variants made under Walmart’s house brand Onn. The Onn Android TV streaming puck costs around $20 and will connect to most TVs with an HDMI port. A turbocharged version, called the Onn Android TV 4K Pro, offers many of the same features along with a backlit remote control and an integrated smart speaker powered by the Google Assistant for $50. TiVo, the company best known for its smart digital video recorders, also makes a streaming device that runs on a variant of Android TV, and recently gained access to the Google TV interface. Some smart TVs made by Hisense, Element, TCL and Sony also offer Google TV.
But for those who want a Google TV-powered device backed by Google itself, the Google TV Streamer is the only option moving forward — and with a $100 price tag, it doesn’t come cheap. Google is positioning the Google TV Streamer as the cornerstone of most living rooms, and feels the price is justified on the notion that it will be the main device most people use to stream TV, operate their smart devices and interact with the Google Assistant and its AI capabilities.
