Can Android@home Rival Apple AirPlay?
Aside from venturing in the cloud storage sector, Google is said to be trying their luck in home entertainment.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is developing a home-entertainment system that will stream music wirelessly throughout the home, much like Apple’s AirPlay, and would be marketed under the company’s own brand.
This technology will come from Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, as Google will gain access not only to patents but as well as hardware. But sources say it is still unclear which retailer would sell the entertainment device, stream music from Google’s online music-storage service and pipe it wirelessly to Google-designed speakers or other Web-connected devices in people’s homes. Although there’s a possibility that in the future, if ever this technology from Google does push through, the device would be able to stream other forms of media aside from music files.
Sonos’ co-founder Tom Cullen estimated that the market for this technology is around $8 nillion a year, their company’s sales from last year was at $200 million so Google venturing in this market wouldn’t be financially beneficial for them. Google’s revenue last year was at $38 billion.
“I’d be stunned if they actually thought it was worth it, because it’s peanuts for them,” Cullen stated.
Sadly, Google is not expected to launch the home entertainment device or any new products at the upcoming Mobile World Congress though it’s expected that the Google’s presence will be of significance – might be in terms of support for OEMs using the Android platform.
image credit: SmashingWeb
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