We’re all a bit over Google’s approach of discontinuing good products and services. The company regularly adds products to its crowded graveyard of offerings. While we’ve become accustomed to the company ending mostly beneficial services such as Google Reader (what a big loss), its most recent action in this regard is truly tragic.
Google has just killed the Chromecast with the launch of the new Google TV Streamer (4K). This marks a significant change in the company’s hardware strategy, considering the new device completely replaces the Chromecast family. The new device is more expensive, but it doesn’t seem much better at first glance. This appears to be the enshittification of technology.
We Loved the Chromecast
Back in 2013, Google launched the first-generation Chromecast, which was an HDMI dongle that allowed users to stream content from their smartphones to their TVs.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Chromecast. Limited, sure, but great.
This device marked the beginning of a series of innovative products designed to enhance the TV viewing experience. The product line evolved over the years, with the introduction of the second-generation Chromecast in 2015, and the third-generation Chromecast in 2018.
However, it wasn’t until 2020 that the tech giant introduced a game-changing product: the Chromecast with Google TV (4K). This new version came with a remote control and could operate independently from a mobile device, making it a huge success. The Chromecast with Google TV quickly became a popular accessory for Smart TVs, offering users a seamless way to enjoy a wide variety of content.
Truth be told, the Chromecast with Google TV (4K) wasn’t cheap. It was initially priced at $49.99, but one could often find it at a lower price during sales. However, Google didn’t seem to see much value in continuing with this version because there was only so much you could do with it.
The Chromecast with Google TV (4K) is still an exceptional device. And Google has decided to kill it off.
There was no true successor to the Chromecast with Google TV (4K). Instead, Google released a cheaper variant, the Chromecast with Google TV (HD), priced at $29.99, which removed the 4K support.
Despite all this, both versions of the Chromecast with Google TV provided a great TV experience. The Google TV interface offered one of the best user experiences for this type of product, and experts and users praised the device and its remote control for their simplicity and features.
We loved the Chromecast, and Google had it easy. The launch of the new Google TV Streamer (4K) could’ve simply been a more ambitious iteration of that proposition, but no. Google decided it was time to discontinue the Chromecast. While it’ll maintain support for the current devices, the company won’t be making any more and will just keep selling them until it runs out of stock.
And that’s a tragedy.
The Enshittification of Technology
Much has been said about the concept of “enshittification,” a term coined by writer Cory Doctorow that refers to the slow process of decay online platforms go through when they become less usable and lose quality, resulting in the deterioration of the user experience.
Image | Alexander Grey
Doctorow has been criticizing this phenomenon for some time, and mainly applies the term to the evolution of social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. He had this to say about them:
“Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.”
This is precisely what’s happening with the Chromecast. Initially, the device was beneficial for users, but then it started including advertising and compromising the user experience for business customers. Now, it seems to primarily benefit Google itself.
With the launch of the Google TV Streamer (4K), Google is introducing a product that prioritizes increasing profit margins over satisfying users. Although it would’ve been simple for Google to continue offering the more affordable options of the Chromecast with Google TV (4K)/(HD), it looks like that this won’t be happening and the company will simply discontinue these products.
It seems that Google anticipated that keeping the older devices on the market would affect the sales of the new product. Its solution was to kill off the older models and offer only the pricier option.
A Debatable Product
The new Google TV Streamer (4K) comes in a set-top box format. It’s designed to be visible and prominent, similar to other products like the Apple TV 4K or the Amazon Fire TV Cube. These products are more ambitious, powerful, and expensive compared to the HDMI dongles like the Chromecast or the Fire TV Stick.
The new device is also more powerful, featuring twice the RAM (4 GB) and four times the storage (32 GB), which lets users install more apps.
It also boasts a processor that Google claims is 22% faster than the previous one, although this improvement may not be significant considering that four years have passed since the launch of the original Chromecast with Google TV (4K). As such, it seems unlikely that you’ll be able to use it as an occasional video game console, which would've been a welcome addition, especially for the now-defunct Stadia platform. As Android Authority reports, the processor is a Mediatek MT8696, the same one used in the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
The device has impressive wired connectivity, featuring an HDMI 2.1 port and an Ethernet port. However, the box doesn’t include an HDMI cable. Google’s new set-top-box supports 4K HDR with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. On the downside, it only supports Wi-Fi 5, which is a bit outdated for a product released in 2024. In comparison, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max, priced at about half the cost, supports Wi-Fi 6.
Despite the dated wireless connectivity, Google tries to grab attention with its artificial intelligence features, known as Gemini.
These features enable users to access summaries for episodes or even entire seasons, as well as receive personalized recommendations that are theoretically better than the standard options offered in the Google TV/Android TV operating system. Additionally, the device can serve as a home automation control center, supporting Thread and Matter protocols.
There are several questions to consider here. First: Do the features of the device justify its price? There’s a significant difference compared to its 4K predecessor ($99.99 versus $49.99), and although the features have improved, there are very competitive products in the same price range, such as the Apple TV 4K (which is more expensive but comes with a very powerful A15 Bionic chip) or the Fire TV Cube.
It’s important to note that the Apple TV 4K may be pricey, but it comes with a more powerful chip and greater storage capacity. This makes it a worthwhile investment for a device that you’ll likely keep in your home for many years. On the other hand, the Google TV Streamer (4K) has a less impressive chip and memory, which could limit its ability to support AI features. As a long-term investment, Google’s product may not seem as appealing.
The second, and more obvious, question is: Why kill the Chromecast? Why not keep manufacturing and selling them to customers who might want a different option?
The answer is clear: money.
Not nice, Google.
This article was written by Javier Pastor and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.
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