Google has discontinued the Chromecast Audio, the handy audio dongle that made it possible to smarten up any speaker with a headphone jack.
The company says it will continue to support existing products, but production has now halted and no newcomers to the range will be announced. As a result the company is flogging off all existing inventory at just $15, which is $20 off the $35 asking price.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Google said: “Our product portfolio continues to evolve, and now we have a variety of products for users to enjoy audio. We have therefore stopped manufacturing our Chromecast Audio products. We will continue to offer assistance for Chromecast Audio devices, so users can continue to enjoy their music, podcasts and more.”
Related: Google Home vs Amazon Echo
The devices, which first launched in 2015, were pitched as an affordable way for music fans to wirelessly cast tunes from their phones to their existing and well-loved speakers, without having to plug in their music players directly.
However, what seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, paled in comparison to the success of the Chromecast video range, which plug into the back of the television set via HDMI, in terms of sales.
Since the advent of the Google Home speaker, Google has been much more occupied with selling devices in those ranges that encompass far greater functionality beyond playing audio. After all, Chromecast Audio doesn’t have the Assistant, which provides the company with much more valuable data.
The Chromecast Audio is still a solid investment (especially at the current everything must go price) due to the ability for the devices to pair with a Google Home for multi-room playback.
Are you sad to see the Google Chromecast Audio go the way of the dodo? Or was this inevitable once Google pushed the Assistant-based Home range into the market? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.