Google exec: Chromecast V2 is coming; users have cast 650 million times
Google's Mario Queiroz said that 650 million people have now hit the cast button. An API for developers will let them build custom apps for Backdrop. — Three months ago, Google claimed that Chromecast users …
Context & Ripple Effects
The cast-button milestone is accelerating: Google counted 400 million cast sessions in July 2014, three months later Mario Queiroz puts the number at 650 million — and he used the moment to confirm that a second-generation Chromecast, first floated in Gigaom's December 2013 look at Google's 2014 hardware plans, is on the way.
First-order effects
- A Chromecast V2 gives Google a refreshed $35-class device for the holiday season, while the new Backdrop API lets developers build their own apps for what has so far been a Google-controlled ambient screen.
Second-order effects
- Opening Backdrop turns the 'dumb' idle state of the dongle into a developer surface, extending the app-expansion path Google started with Plex, Vevo and RealPlayer beyond video apps into ambient content — deepening lock-in of the cast protocol as more apps adopt it.
- The announcement lands alongside FCC approval for the Nexus Player, giving Google two living-room tracks — cheap cast dongles and full Android TV boxes — that share one app ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- If the cast API keeps compounding, the TV's value shifts from the set-top box to the phone-as-remote model, pressuring rivals to expose their own casting protocols or risk becoming dumb pipes for other platforms' apps.
The trend: Google is turning casting from a feature into a platform, pairing cheap hardware with an expanding developer API to own the phone-to-TV pathway.