At the same price as a Raspberry Pi, why would I want one?
For me, the only benefit I see to the Chromecast is frequent travel for use on hotel televisions. Otherwise, an HTPC is going to provide superior functionality at the same cost.
Well, I have a HTPC, and a PS3, and I still got this. Why? Because it's super cheap, and does a few things better than the other devices - Youtube and Netflix etc don't work on XBMC well at all, youtube on the PS3 is a pain since you have to wait for it to open the app, and being able to use this for play music will be great. For $17 (with the netflix months and shipping), it's well worth it.
It's great for a run and go gadget, but I don't think it'll replace my HTPC.
If I didn't already have dedicated hardware, I'd get one. As it is, there isn't anything it does that makes it worth including in an existing HTPC setup.
Really? How do you do Youtube/Netflix on your HTPC now? How about play music? If you are browsing youtube on your laptop and want to play it on your tv, how many seconds is that going to take to transfer the video playback?
For me, the only benefit I see to the Chromecast is frequent travel for use on hotel televisions. Otherwise, an HTPC is going to provide superior functionality at the same cost.