“Google’s new consumer media streaming device, the Nexus Q, poses little threat to Apple’s growing Apple TV business, analysts said,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. “‘The Q, it’s the Apple TV-1,’ said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, in an interview Wednesday. He was referring to Google’s $299 price point, which is the same as the hard disk drive-equipped Apple TV’s $299 opening cost when it launched in March 2007. ‘…it’s very high priced,’ added Michael Gartenberg with Gartner, also in an interview yesterday. ‘I don’t understand that.’
Keizer reports, “Andrew Ladbrook, a senior analyst at Informa, was more damning in his take. ‘Despite some very high specifications and a very attractive unique design, the Google Q device is underwhelming,’ said Ladbrook in an email today. ‘The majority of the features can already be found in Apple’s Airport Express devices and Apple TV.’ And Ladbrook questioned Google’s Nexus Q strategy. ‘It is also an ill fit into Google’s wider Android strategy… Its high price point will depress sales, reducing its role as a complement to the Android handsets,’ said Ladbrook. ‘Google [Nexus] Q devices are unlikely to have the same lock-in effect as Apple’s cheaper Airport Express and Apple TV.'”
“According to current Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple sold 2.8 million Apple TV devices last year. But as of late May, Cook said during an interview at the Wall Street Journal‘s All Things Digital conference, approximately 2.7 million Apple TVs had been sold in 2012, putting it on a sales pace of about 6.5 million units. That would represent a 132% year-to-year growth rate,” Keizer reports. “The Nexus Q, like the Nexus 7 tablet that Google also introduced yesterday, will be sold only through the Google Play store. Unlike Apple, which has a large chain of brick-and-mortar stores and long-established relationships with other retailers, Google has neither.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That the Nexus Q was launched at all is inexplicable. We haven’t seen a product so obviously DOA at launch since Microsoft’s Zune.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “wirehead” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Google looks to take on $99 Apple TV with $299 ‘Nexus Q’ (with video) – June 27, 2012
The sphere is such a novel design. I thought they were introducing the Google Bowling Ball. Then I realized there were more than 3 holes.
AKA a neckbeard’s fantasy woman.
I thought they had finally brought the Okama Gamesphere to life.
It takes a lot of creativity to make something that is both overpriced and would be a pain to fit into the typical home entertainment set-up.
Nexus Q
= Nexus Queer
= Nexus Quit
= Nexus quandary
= Nexus Quack
= Nexus Queen
= Nexus Question
= Nexus Quicksand
= Nexus Quixotry
That’s amazing how you came up with all those words that start with ‘Q’. /s
Why are they entering the consumer electronics business anyway? And why are they trying to duplicate every device that Apple makes but so badly?
Google is so dumb!
do they really think the AppleTV costs less than $99 to manufacture? Well, maybe, I don’t know. But here is the thing:
Apple use AppleTV to SELL movies and music. It is NOT a device that stands on its own.
Google must take the Q and sell it for $90 and use it to sell SEARCH!!!
are they not a search company?
Is that not their business?
I would love to “search for a show” and watch it.
Google needs to get back to their core!
I too don’t know why they want to venture into consumer electronics. If they want to emulate Apple, that’s not what apple is doing.
Google is run by a bunch of morons! (Ok, that last comment was uncalled for)
And it’s getting panned by reviewers. This thing is insta-roadkill.
http://themacadvocate.com/2012/06/28/the-verges-first-look-at-the-nexus-q-it-just-shirks/
Made is the USA and not Communist China… Nuff said!
Google is not saying this which means one thing. Production will move overseas once it stabilizes. This is not unusual for a product to be initally made in the US while the kinks are being worked out.
Looks like a ball and chain for your TV.
The logo looks like the Quicktime icon……
Even fandroids are saying “WTF” about this one. Did Google hire some Microsoft product developers recently?