According to Trusted Reviews, Google sent an invite to the company, but did not receive a reply. “We have an open SDK, and any developer can write to that SDK to support cast,” said a U.S. rep at the Google U.K. event. “So if Apple does that, then it supports iTunes Music.”
Chromecast Audio allows any speaker to become connected to mobile through a lemonade cable that connects the speaker to the phone. It costs the same price as the Chromecast for TV ($35) and is already receiving a lot of fanfare from people with old speaker systems.
We still don’t know how valuable Apple Music support is to Chromecast Audio. Millions of free trial owners are just now getting notifications telling them to pay for the first month, and we still need a few months to figure out how many spend $9.99 to continue using the service.
Both parties may be hurt by the disconnect, but Apple should take the blame for its inability to support popular accessories. Apple did confirm that Apple Music would be available on Android at WWDC 2015, which gives at least some hope that Chromecast Audio will be supported in the future.
It also means Apple’s TV streaming service is unlikely to support the Chromecast when it launches in 2016, unless Apple values the Chromecast more than its audio counterpart.
Apple has been snubbing Android since it started, with Steve Jobs originally planning “thermonuclear war” against Google’s operating system. Things have calmed down over time, but apps like FaceTime, iMessage, Maps, iTunes, and Watch still lack Android support. We don’t expect that to change in the next year, considering Apple’s lack of investment in building its ‘Move to iOS’ app for Android.
