Google has stopped selling the Nexus Player, their first Android TV device. The Nexus Player page on the Google Store has been removed in its entirety and Google has stated it will not return. The 18 month old device never quite took off in sales, nor did it receive terribly favorable reviews. Android TV isn’t going anywhere, although it’s a bit disconcerting that a successor to the Nexus Player was never released. While there will be a new Android TV set top box released later this year by Xiaomi, the platform seems to be having the most success as a TV operating system. Several new televisions running Android TV are expected to arrive later this year.
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it’s a bit concerning
*disconcerting
I find it concerning you’re correcting him, yet you spelled grammar wrong in your username.
There’s this site called urbandictionary.com. They define “grammer” as:
“A common typo for grammar. Most commonly found in sentences that correct someone else’s grammar.”
The example they give is:
“Your and idiot because you have bad grammer.”
Serves me right for trying to write a post one handed with a fussy baby in the other hand. Thanks for pointing out the mistake.
I’m not really concerned with the Nexus Player discontinued as long as Google continues to update Android on it and more apps come to the platform. Over-all Android TV itself is getting far far better than it was at launch. There were alot of material design bugs/glitches in the launcher itself and certain apps for quite a while, but now they’ve been pretty much fixed. There are still Logitech Harmony Hub issues due to the mapping of the center/select key of the Bluetooth keyboard profile utilized and I can’t quite figure out who’s fault that is???
Beyond that, it’s got most all the main “banner apps” that Fire TV does. YouTube, Plex, HBO Now/Go, Sling TV, Showtime Anytime, STARZ, Netflix, Hulu, HGTV, Official Spotify, WatchABC (coming shortly), WatchESPN, FOXNOW, Fox News, FXNOW, Vudu (promised) etc. And anything that doesn’t have an explicit app yet, is usually Google Cast enabled (SlingPlayer). I can’t see Google giving up on the platform anytime soon due to Android TV getting so much more developer support from big names than the Google TV ever received. And in a sense, Fire TV’s success (while using Android underneath) is helping Android TV because some devs are just recycling the same over-all code/UI, while simply tweaking API’s between the two platforms.
HA! I thought it was disconinued almost a year ago. Once it started selling for about $40, with no new version was coming, you knew something was up.
Good riddance. Go go Minix.
I picked up 2 Nexus players for a whole 36.99 at Tigerdirect in Raleigh last October. Other than the frequent crashes and reboots, and poor Wifi it ‘s a good streamer.
Bought one when it first came out. Hideously unstable, particularly the Wifi, but improved once Google got around to updating the firmware. Months later.
In terms of processing grunt, I’d put it about on par with the Fire Stick, which made it overpriced compared to the Fire TV. No wonder they had to mark it down.
The biggest problem is Google. You can’t trust them to support their own products or explain why they exist.
According to benchmarks it is slightly faster than first Gen Fire TV
I remember when the speculation with the Plex crowd assumed this was going to be the perfect plex streaming device… AKA “The Firetv Killer”. I personally don’t want one perfect device, I’d rather have 3 great devices to choose from at the $100 price point. This is pretty much status quo for Google tho, they’ve never really nailed down the hardware side of anything and if they do, they stop supporting it in short order.
Tired of Googles market opening/display devices. They release them say they have all this potential and they are going to do what ever. Then they feed you one update then leave the boxes hanging. I have a Nexus Player and I do like it. It is a bit limited in some capacity but its a OK little puck. May have to get another FireTV as a secondary to my ShieldTV now I guess.
They no longer sell it but it will be upgraded to Android N
Google seems to enjoy bringing out beta products just to see which might work. I suppose they are committed to Chromecast and the Android TV software platform? They seem to have even further lost focus, sort of like Apple though Apple is not nearly as wild.
History repeats itself over and over again and again!
Google has always have done the same… Launches several boxes with a promise that they will work faster than other units, and that also will do what has never been done… But then, suddenly and without notice, suspend the product, which leave us hanging without any support!
Same thing happened a few years ago with the GoogleTV units, which were discontinued by Google and replaced by the new AndroidTV, presumably because to run AndroidTV, a faster and updated hardware was needed.
As I currently have several GoogleTV units: 2 Logitech Revue, 2 Sony NSZ-GS8 and 2 NSZ-GT1, which I bought in the hope that they would be updated and not abandoned as it happened, I was absolutely sure that these new Nexus-Players with AndroidTV, also were to be abandoned by Google!
For the above reasons, I decided to buy few months ago, 1 FireTV1, 2 FireTV2 and 2 FireTV-Sticks, and I am very happy because they all work very well and also have excellent support from Amazon!!
I couldn’t agree with you more. I went through a similar transition from multiple Google TV boxes. Ended up with Fire TV’s, stick and am very pleased with them. I have partitially moved to an Apple TV 4 and will move completely if I start seeing even more ads on my Fire TV. At first it was just other apps and shows for the Fire TV but lately I have started seeing ads for cars.
Amazon support and its ecosystem are miles ahead of the nightmare that I found myself in with Google TV. I don’t know what it is with Google. They love testing out stuff only to leave their customers hanging just when things get neat.