The rumored partnership between Vizio and Google over Chromecast integration into the former’s TV sets would be an interesting step for both parties. For Vizio, renowned for its budget smart TV sets, it is recognition that availability of compelling apps, or rather lack of, has been holding back its sales or at least use of its models for accessing OTT content and services.
Of course users of smart TVs are free to use external devices like a Roku box or a Chromecast dongle itself to access apps, even if such devices are pitched more at standard HDMI TV sets, but that rather defeats the object of spending extra on a smart TV. Vizio figures that providing access to Chromecast and the associated ecosystem of apps out of the box will increase the appeal of its TVs and perhaps allow a small premium to be charged.
For Google the move opens a parallel track to its Android TV strategy. Until now its Android TV stack has been positioned for competing with Apple TV and Amazon among others through integration with other smart TVs. Partners include Sony, Sharp and Philips and then at CES 2016 in January Google announced that other manufacturers would be integrating with the platform in the coming months. But now it appears that Google is opening up a new path for low smart cost TVs via Chromecast, which until now has been positioned as a parallel offering to provide “smarts” just to legacy TVs lacking direct Internet connectivity.
Android TV itself supports casting from other Android devices but not those running iOS or Windows. However, devices running the Chrome browser can cast to Android TVs, so that can be done on just about any device, even iPhones and iPads. But this misses out on some of Chromecast’s benefits over in-built apps. These include access to many more apps as well as the features offered on a mobile such as voice search in some apps like YouTube, keyboard search and effective screen mirroring. For users of Vizio’s new TV sets the experience will be just the same as plugging in a Chromecast dongle, but without having to switch.
Instead the TV should detect automatically when the user begins casting. These are all good reasons for Vizio getting into bed with Google, especially as its own smart TV apps which now look like being scrapped were poor combined with those from admittedly higher priced rivals like Samsung or LG.
There is one other important difference between use of Chromecast functionality and in-built apps which could be considered a disadvantage. Users will have to use their own device, typically a phone, but it could also be a tablet or PC, to manipulate the app, rather than the TV remote. That might put some people off, although it is something that Vizio could fix in a future remote. But in any case the tide is flowing against the traditional remote around 35 years after its introduction.