LONDON—The biggest tech companies don't share a lot. Apple and Google don't have a direct-to-consumer advertising relationship, despite that fact that Apple users' phone use has Google ads on it. Facebook and Google have been moving into more areas, like the mobile operating system business. But there's an implicit limit on the number of partners any tech company can support. Microsoft's Bing, and Amazon's Alexa represent Google's two main competitors in voice-controlled search. And if there's any product Google could add to this mix, it's Chromecast. For context, here's the current list of living things in the living room: Apple TV (a set-top box for video from Netflix, iTunes, etc.), Amazon Echo (and set of Echo Dot smart speakers), Roku (set-top box for video and music from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Roku's own offerings), Samsung Smart TVs, and the Nintendo Switch. There are two major ways Google could approach Chromecast. The first way is to do it better. The second way is to do it cheaper. Google would lose some of its current revenue if it were to sell Google Chromecast cheaper, because Chromecast does not have a standalone subscription of its own, so the device exists solely to be the link from your mobile device to the internet and back. If you use your phone to watch Netflix on a Chromecast, Google also gets to sell you access to Netflix on your phone as part of its app ecosystem. If you buy a Chromecast at cost, Google gets no extra sales from you. Google has a lot of phones and tablets. Buying Chromecasts at cost would not be a financial catastrophe. If you can get Netflix and Hulu on your phone with subscriptions from Google Play, maybe you'd buy a Chromecast in order to stream that content to your TV. But, like an Android phone, Chromecast is not just a standalone product—it's a service. The reason Google sells its own phones is because Google sells Google Search to everyone who uses them, and the data collection on search for the purposes of targeting ads becomes a massive selling point for Android users. Google doesn't need Google Search or Android phones in order to sell Chromecast, because Chromecast is all about Android phones and Chromebooks. Chromecast works on phones that have Google Play installed. Chromecast also doesn't compete with Chromecast in the smart TV market, because Chromecast is all about cheap devices that can't run apps very well. A cheaper Chromecast would bring more users into Google's ecosystem, as Google would be able to lower the cost of its hardware. Apple has been able to push Apple Music and Apple Music subscriptions with the cheapest products Apple can. In practice, the cheaper devices have only led to Apple selling more hardware. Chromecast sales continue to grow, but they've been growing at a flat rate of approximately 7 percent over the last four years. Apple sold 17.1 million Watches in the last quarter, an increase of 42 percent year over year, and it sold 20.4 million iPhones in the last quarter, a decline of 7 percent year over year. Google sells millions of phones every quarter, so we can only conclude that Google isn't selling Chromecasts as hard as it could. If the Chromecast were cheaper, Google would sell millions of units each quarter. But how much would Google have to lower the price to make the economics work? The average list price of Google's 4K Ultra HD streaming stick is $69.99. The average selling price is $53.42. Apple charges $100 for its cheapest Apple TV. And Apple is still doing better than Chromecast. If Google lowers the price of its Chromecast to $30 and stops making any internal software or hardware changes to the Chromecast (and if it never uses the Chromecast brand again), Google would have the ability to sell millions of Chromecasts and Chromecast Ultra units if it wanted. An ad for the Apple TV. Hollis Johnson Getty Images Google isn't doing that, for obvious reasons. Google TV is supposed to be a big play for selling Chromecast and Apple TV products, but that space is more complex than just "selling Chromecast at cost," and it's hard to do both of those things and still make money. There's a reason for all of this, because Google has also made no secret that it intends to introduce "smart display devices" in 2019. This line of Google hardware was first introduced at I/O in 2018, and Google said at the time that it's currently working on its own smart speaker, a "home device," and a "VR/AR headset." The home device could be the Google Pixel phone, an updated Google Home device, or the Google smart display (which would likely serve double duty as an Android smart speaker), and the VR headset could be anything from a standalone headset to Google's own Cardboard VR viewer. There's no evidence that Google is working on a new Chromecast product at the moment, but Google has the Chromecast code and technology for its own smart display device, so it could do that. A Google smart display device sounds a lot like a "TV." Google TV was built on Google Fiber broadband and Android phones. You'll note Google has yet to sell any set-top boxes to date. A smart display would be an opportunity to put Chromecast out of its misery. In fact, Google has shown a number of smart display prototypes already, including an early version that has a display similar in size to the one on your TV. It looks like an LED TV from 2011, a TV that has been rendered with a high-end look, with what looks like a custom-built Google Assistant interface with a microphone embedded into it. The screen is probably the biggest challenge Google will face here, as smart displays with displays as big as the current phone screens are unwieldy to use. You'll also note the Google Home Hub looks nothing like the Google Home speaker. What is important here is that all of these devices are the end result of Google's attempt to take over the living room. Google, Apple, and Amazon are the only companies that have the resources to attempt to make their own cable boxes. Google has been working on a video service called "YouTube TV," and a Google representative confirmed to Business Insider in 2017 that Google would like to become the "Netflix of the cable world" and deliver TV with a monthly subscription instead of a la carte purchases of channels like HBO Now. Chromecast is a means to an end. Google's TV and movie content is only good enough to run on Chromecast. You can use your Apple TV, your Roku, or any Android TV device to access it. Google has also built a huge app ecosystem to go with Chromecast, and this is how Google becomes an easy-to-buy media company by delivering its own content and making money from its own app store. And Google has been working on its own hardware to tie in with all of this. But the ultimate goal is this: Google is going to take over your living room, and it won't be giving you a choice in the matter. NOW WATCH: Popular Videos from Insider Inc.