I just saw an interesting black sphere on the fastcompanydesign site, and was intrigued to find out that it was a Google product. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670173/google-s-nexus-q-teases-a-future-of-smart-social-hardware

Striking, I know… It took me a full 4 minute video to understand what it actually did, and how I could use something like this, but I get the feeling that the product’s features aren’t its core objective. As the FastCo article describes, it’s the first product Google has created, and it wreaks of “the future.”

FastCo predicts that not many of these bad boys will sell, but that they herald a significant shift in Google’s business: entry into the hardware game. And they are almost going beyond Apple’s simplification of the technically complex.

It seems like a tip of the hat to the Bang and Olufsen style “timeless design.” Which is an important statement to make when entering into the market – it’s the stake in the ground, the reference point for all future physical product Google will create.

Retailing at $300, it seems ironic that Google is entering the physical market at the “premium” end, while its online global dominance came so directly from being “free.”