Chromecast expands to 11 countries

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) kicked off the global rollout of its Chromecast streaming stick, announcing that the device is now available in nine countries on the European continent, the United Kingdom and Canada.

"We want to bring Chromecast to more people around the world," Mario Queiroz, VP of product management, wrote on the Chrome blog Tuesday. "Today Chromecast is available in an additional 11 countries--Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K."

The Chromecast device will retail for €35 on the continent, £30 in the UK, and $39 in Canada.

Consumers can purchase the dongle at several retailers including through Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Google Play, Currys PC World in the UK and Ireland, Nordic retailer Elkjøp, the FNAC retail chain in France, and Germany-based Saturn and Media Markt.

Google also recently released its SDK kit for the device to encourage developers to add Chromecast support to their apps and websites.

Chromecast may currently be sailing out ahead of the streaming device pack, but competition is already closing in. Roku recently released a $50 streaming stick to directly challenge Google's compact device, and Amazon announced that its own streaming device will be available in April.

For more:
- see Google's blog post
- BroadbandTVNews has this story
- the Toronto Star has this story

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