Seemingly undisturbed by its inability to ship the Nexus Q, the media player it announced last year, Google is developing two more hardware gizmos, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and wristwatch powered by its Android operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet company seeks to spread the software beyond smartphones and tablets.
Apple, you may remember, has been widely tipped to release a smart watch later this year, though the company has been tight-lipped on the subject. Tim Cook did admit recently that the wearable computing market was ‘ripe for exploration’ and that ‘there’s nothing great out there’ but refused to be pressed any further.
Nevertheless, the Journal explained that ‘The people briefed on the matter said Google is reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release.’
The likelihood of Apple releasing a separate games console is close to zero, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to open Apple TV to third party developers and allow games to be installed on it and controlled from an iPad or iPhone. That prospect led former Xbox engineer, Nat Brown to write on his blog in February:
Apple, if it chooses to do so, will simply kill Playstation, Wii-U and xBox by introducing an open 30%-cut app/game ecosystem for Apple-TV. I already make a lot of money on iOS – I will be the first to write apps for Apple-TV when I can, and I know I’ll make money.
Google apparently thinks that Apple is planning just that, an belief which would only have been strengthened by Cook’s comment last month that Apple TV ‘continues to be an area of great interest to us.’
