Paul Stenhouse: Google ruled a monopolist, discontinues the Chromecast

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Google is discontinuing the Google Chromecast

With more than 100 million sold over an 11-year life, it was a good run. It was a great entry level device to very quickly get content onto your TV.

It's being replaced by the Google TV Streamer. It's a device that is designed to sit on your entertainment unit because it also doubles as a full-featured smart speaker with Google Assistant. Think of it more as a "set top box". The extra size means extra connectivity options and power, allowing you to use it as a smart home hub to connect and control your Nest cameras, thermostat, and more.

The TV part of the device runs the latest Android TV operating system and uses Google Gemini AI to provide TV recommendations and help you use your voice to navigate the app.

Google is a monopolist

This is a huge win for the US government who says that Google Search has a monopoly on the market - surprising no one. Google has a 90% share overall, and 95% share on mobile devices.

The judge particularly takes aim at their deal with Apple to make Google the default search engine. Apple and Google would argue that people are going to turn to Google anyway, so why not give it to them up front as the default. It's thought the judge may force those deals to be scrapped but could go so far as to force Google search to be broken out as a separate company.

Commentators say this is a warning to big tech because it says no company is too big to regulate. There's another case pending too, which examines the ads business.

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