price tag makes it stupid.
google already has
google tv that is supposed to do other stuff that i generally expect it to do. this is more like a companion device to
android smartphones and
tablets. simply do not see the point of having this device considering the reliance on cloud. i mean even in america most people are on connects with restricted data transfer capabilities.
Apple and google keeps on releasing products that are so heavily dependent upon the cloud that it makes them horribly useless in most countries around the world.
HTC Media Link HD is a similar device offered as an accessory with
One X (and probably other models too). It seems to be priced at around USD 100. Google Nexus Q is something similar but is designed to work with almost all Android devices around.
google should have done with q what they did with nexus 7. but the problem with q is that it has been developed by the new google industrial design team which is focusing on highly experimental design based hardware. they recently hired
Mike & Maaike design studio which had developed the first android smartphone for HTC. this group was also responsible for the design of the original xbox. they should not have launched it alongside nexus 7.
Wired has a
good piece on Nexus Q.
Just like
Microsoft recently demonstrated with its Surface tablet, Google understands that no-excuses hardware execution is paramount in this age of Retina display iPads and otherworldly
MacBook Pros. Google decided to source almost all of its parts from U.S. suppliers, and is even bucking convention by manufacturing Nexus Q in America. This allows the company’s engineers to visit any link in their manufacturing chain at a moment’s notice.
“Being able to have every engineer go to the factory if needed is incredibly valuable,” says Matt Hershenson, director of hardware. “And they don’t have to get on a plane to do that.”
The Nexus Q factory is located in America -- close enough to Google for Britt (left) and Hershenson to drop in for a site visit when they need to. The facility is a single, vast, open room filled with both robotic equipment and real human beings assembling Nexus Q spheres, part by part.