It appears that there are big things in store for Google’s $35 media streaming dongle in 2014. Launched earlier this year, Chromecast proved to be a hit, with Google itself acknowledging that it had underestimated demand for the dongle. Vice President of Product Management at Google, Mario Queiroz, has said that Chromecast is going to be launched in a “number of international markets” next year and that fans of the dongle will be “pleasantly surprised” by the expansion’s scope.
The prime aim here is to get more apps on Chromecast, which only supports a limited number of apps right now, majority of which are provided by content partners such as Vevo and Netflix. Speaking with GigaOm, Queiroz said that there is going to be an “expectation” from consumers that any and every app is going to be able to work with the dongle. According to the VP, “hundreds of developers” have signed up to bring their apps to Chromecast, however they are only able to build them right now, they can’t distribute them as Google hasn’t finalized the SDK or software development kit yet. It plans to release the SDK next year, thus providing the ability to make apps for Chromecast to anyone who wishes to. He also confirmed that additional waves of apps for the dongle are going to be released in the near future.
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