Recently, Google ‘killed’ Chromecast and launched a new product. As expected, media outlets ran with titles in the vein of ‘Yet another Google product is killed’.
It’s odd, but not surprising, that Google keeps ‘killing’ beloved products that are recognisable in favour of the sometimes bland ones, with added complexity and a touch of confusion for the end-customer.
They also have an identity crisis with Gemini and Assistant. Heck, Bard was a really good name and they had some sort of clear distinction back then. Look at the Google Duo, Google Meet (Original), and Google Meet mess, but I digress.
In this case, Google didn’t really kill Chromecast but rather rebranded it into a much more capable device with a generic name. You can’t convince me Google TV Streamer was the best name they could come up with. The problem is, with time, we’ll just get used and possibly attached to this name right in time for them to ditch it.
They somehow always make it seem like they have killed certain products when in most cases they could easily spin it off that they’ve merged features into another product while retaining a beloved name.
If marketed properly, then we wouldn’t have the infamous Google Graveyard, or the bodies would have been significantly fewer.
Ultimately, I think it’s a marketing issue.
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