The future of any mobile-connected hardware is inexorably tied to its app ecosystem: it doesn't matter how awesome a piece of hardware is these days if there are no apps to run on it. That's surprisingly been Google's problem with its super-cheap HDTV dongle Chromecast -- until now.

Google introduced the Chromecast in late summer along with the Nexus 7 tablet, and immediately critics and tech enthusiasts knew that the little HDMI thumbstick-drive-sized gadget was a game changer for Google and TV. Previously, Google had tried to get its Google TV software off the ground by partnering with television manufacturers and third-party set-top streaming boxes, to little avail.

But the compact Chromecast, initially set at $35 with a three-month Netflix subscription (making the price for Netflix subscribers effectively less than $10), had all the potential to change Google's fortunes in TV streaming.

Its cheap price and simple user operation promised ubiquity for Google, while the ability to direct any video or audio from apps or the Chrome browser to stream on an HDTV at the press of a button -- what Google calls "casting" -- promised a flexible way for consumers to watch anything on the big screen. Google would take over the living room with this low-cost gadget.

But when Google announced the Chromecast, it only supported the Chrome browser, Google Play media, Netflix, and YouTube. Google promised more apps soon, but over the next few months, Google only added Pandora, Hulu Plus, and HBO Go -- important apps, but certainly not a plethora.

What's worse is that Google changed Chromecast's code shortly after launch, effectively disabling one of the most useful apps for Chromecast -- an app by an indie developer called AllCast, which allowed casting local files to the HDTV.

Google's Present

Google gave Chromecast users a bit of a Christmas present when it released a batch of apps around the holidays, though most of them were peripheral services like contextual music service Songza or anime-streaming service Viki. A few of the apps, like Plex, allowed local media casting -- but only if you were a member of their service and uploaded the files to their cloud first.

However, at the same time Google gave the app developer community some good news as well: It was working on a public software development kit (SDK) for the Chromecast, something that had been previously restricted to companies like HBO and Netflix. Google also hinted that it was going to make the Chromecast system an integral part of Google's future, partnering with television and home media manufacturers to include native casting in their next generation of products.

A Flood of Apps

Now, as of Monday of this week, Google's Cast Software Development Kit is open for any developers that want to make use of the Chromecast for apps and websites. It's about time that Google opened the Chromecast ecosystem up for developers to make apps -- something that you'd think Google, which after all created Android, would have put an emphasis on from the start.

The news basically means that, in the next few months, we'll see more apps and sites coming out with Chromecast compatibility than you can list on a website. Already, the indie AllCast app is back up and running, allowing for easy playing of local files on HDTVs. Soon finding a media app or web service that doesn't work with Chromecast will be the exception to the norm.

With the release of the public SDK, Chromecast is back to its revolutionary potential. As Rishi Chandra, Chromecast's director of product management, told CNET, "With the Chromecast, we're resetting consumer applications... [consumers] should just expect their phones or tablet applications to just work on the television." Let's hope that's the case from now on.