Chromecast is a wonderful little piece of kit. With Chromecast you can (almost) stream anything you want from your Android devices and laptops to your big screen. In spite of its increasing functionality, one of the biggest selling features of the Chromecast dongle is its a price. Coming in at usually about $35 this is one of the cheapest usable streaming devices available. Due to this perfect balance of price and function, it is probably not surprising that all over the world there is a good demand for the little streaming stick.
In India, Chromecast has been available for some time. However, that availability has largely been unofficial. The stick can be purchased online or in Indian retail stores, but it is an imported version. Even Amazon (USA arm) seem to export to India and actually do so with little increase in price compared to the local retailers. Although this is all well and good, the problem with importing the goods to India is that they do not come with the usual ‘official’ warranty in the country. This is due to Google not officially selling the device in this region. Well, that looks set to change.
Today Google announced that they are indeed launching the Chromecast dongle in India. The device will be priced at Rs. 2999, which equates to just short of $50. As such the unit is priced higher than it is in the US or Europe. That said, it still does come in cheaper than it was being sold previously by local retailers, which was more towards the RS 3,500 figure. In terms of where, official Chromecasts will only be available via Snapdeal for now. There is currently no information on whether it will be sold via the more traditional Play Store route in the future. In terms of when, the Chromecast dongle will be available starting tomorrow (10th December) as part of the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF). As the launch date is the 10th December, strictly speaking, you will be able to pick it up from midnight tonight when the GOSF sale commences. In terms of stock, it is not clear at the moment as to whether there are issues in this respect but either way, if you are after one then it might be worth getting one sooner rather than later.