SAN FRANCISCO — In June, Google engineers took to the stage in front of thousands of cheering software developers to introduce the Nexus Q, a black ball meant to stream video and music. It was Google’s first try at building its own hardware — in the United States, no less — and Google called it “a third wave of consumer electronics.”


But last week, just five weeks after the introductory pomp at the annual developers’ conference, Google indefinitely postponed shipment of the device.


Though Google was hardly betting the company on the Q, the failure reveals deeper challenges for the Internet search giant as it tries to move into two new areas: hardware and social technology. Though the hardware for the Q, which Google built in a factory in San Jose, Calif., has for the most part been well received, early users say the device simply does not do enough. And for what it does, at $299, it is too expensive.


The company’s only statement on the delay came in a letter to customers who had ordered it. The letter acknowledged the criticism of early users and said, “we have decided to postpone the consumer launch of Nexus Q while we work on making it even better.” Customers who ordered the device already will receive it at no charge.


Google’s push to build the Q is part of the epic battle between Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.com for control of the living room — the TV shows and movies we watch, the music we listen to and the advertisements we see while sitting on the sofa.


“The battle for the TV is raging,” said James L. McQuivey, an analyst on media and technology at Forrester. “If you’re Google and you know the future of advertising is going to encompass all the screens — the ones you’re strong on, the PC and mobile phone, but also TV — then you’ve got to nail that piece or you run the risk of hitting a ceiling with your revenue potential.”


Advertisers are expected to spend $64.8 billion on TV this year, compared with $39.5 billion online, according to eMarketer, the advertising research firm. People are spending less time reading print publications or listening to the radio in favor of digital devices, eMarketer said, and they are spending more time watching old-fashioned TV.


The delay of the Q is not Google’s first misstep as it tries to become a consumer electronics company and make its products jump off computers and phones and into the family room. Google’s Internet-connected TV, Google TV, has struggled to sign on programming partners and rumbled with hardware makers, and has not caught on widely with TV viewers. Like the Q, it was delayed in its early days to improve the software, though Consumer Reports called LG’s latest Google TV the best version of the product yet.


The Q plugs into TVs or speakers so its owners can listen to music or play video from their Android phones or tablets. It is similar to devices like Apple TV, Boxee, Roku and Google TV.


But the Q is much more expensive than those products and does much less. It plays music, movies and TV shows only from Google Play’s limited collection and YouTube, and can be controlled only by Android devices. It is unclear how it would work with Google TV. The Nexus 7, however, a $199 tablet computer that Google introduced on the same day, has been met with rave reviews and is selling quickly, and can be used as a remote control for TVs.


Tech companies want people to buy their devices so they will also buy their media, and vice versa. Amazon.com sells Kindles so people will buy e-books from Amazon, and Apple sells music on iTunes so people will buy iPods. Companies are racing with one another, because once people store enough media with one service, it is much harder to persuade them to switch services or devices.


Though analysts say the race is far from the finish line, a problem for Google is that most people have not purchased much in the way of music and movies from Google.


“They only extended it to people who had music inside Google Music and media purchased off Google Play which, let’s admit, was a much smaller market than Apple iTunes, Amazon and any other media outlet,” said Chris Silva, a mobile analyst at the Altimeter Group. “They want to get people using Android and using Google Play for media and they know it’s an uphill battle, which is why they’re pushing it so hard.”


Google also hoped that the Q would be the centerpiece of its fledgling efforts to connect home devices to the Internet. It has said it wants to tackle not just the entertainment space but the whole home, eventually connecting coffee pots to the Internet so they can be turned off remotely, for instance, or refrigerators so they can order milk when it is running low.