Chromecast is a failure in my eyes, and a terrible decision by Google.

Its a device that does all the processing itself and feeds it to your dumb/smart TV. It requires a USB or power input. And while it works with many devices, it doesn't work with many content.

So why is it terrible?
Because Google is a company with the muscles to push forward a standard by itself. And pushing out Chromecast would likely mean any potential alternatives/competitors will get a "backseat" in their efforts.

And what are the alternatives??
Miracast.

It can be supported on all those devices Chromecast works on, and more! (ie N9, WP7+).
All the device needs is a Dualband-N Wifi connection (ie Wifi Direct ready)... and the OS/App to initiate Miracast-ing.

Basically mirroring your screen will bypass all the DRM nonesense so you (the user) won't have to worry. It will work with anything your device shows, like your documents, your games, your web browser and ofcourse photo, music and videos. Chromecast simply can't compete. Not to forget its proprietary!

The upsides of Miracast:
- Open Standard (unlike Ccast)
- Works on a widespread standard (Wifi) (Google is attempting to create a new standard)
- Works on many devices (just needs a Miracast App) (more than Ccast)
- Dongle can be simple/won't require power (tie)
- Setup takes 10-15seconds (Ccast takes 3+mins each setup, making it "less portable")
- Displays all content (unlike Ccast)
- Doesn't worry about DRM "issue" (Ccast is working around those "issues")

The downsides of Miracast:
- Delay time 100-200ms, usually 150ms. (Actually pretty great, delay on Ccast is 15+ seconds)
- Video quality is good, but not superb (Ccast offers great quality playback)
- Small performance hit on phone (Ccast doesn't have this problem, its not connected to your phone its connected to your Google account)
- Battery drain on phone. This one is a definite, but I've seen it greatly exaggerated by people. This point may become even more moot once Miracast takes advantage of Low-Power cores in devices like the Tegra and LITTLE.big SoC's.

The TRUE downsides of Miracast as a "ecosystem" is this:
- The dongles/boxes so far are crap (nothing that's good quality and portable and affordable)
- Google has NOT finished implementing Miracast into Android. There's many bugs in there, and some of them are responsible for the "Unable to Connect", "Random Disconnects" and the "Battery Drain" on the device.
- If Google does fix them, and there's a dongle that can compete with Ccast... and other companies decide to jump on board (eg WP8 getting Miracast, Samsung/LG TVs having the feature installed inside etc etc) then it'll be a great boon for consumers