A 4GB USB flash drive is $5 on Amazon - heaven knows what that translates into for the naked chip, in bulk.

So the question becomes, why not?

With the "Weave Ready" comment, I think it might be a smart home hub, too.

The pure router parts? No. But stuff like the home automation features I can see why they'd fit more storage, especially in early versions where they don't know quite yet what they'll want to put in later. (Of course, swappable storage would be even better for that, but has other issues)

A local cache is of course useful for streaming video, but with home automation it can also be useful in the reverse direction. If your Nest cameras are not getting enough bandwidth to send up full 1080p back to the service, they can send 480p up to Google, cache the full-res video on the OnHub router, and upload the buffer late at night when bandwidth is more available.

From the Open Source Licences page, it seems to be running on (a modified version of?) Chromium OS:

https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6257015

Storage is that cheap.

Let me tell you, if my Apple TV had any sort of storage, I'd be a lot happier. Getting a little old streaming everything from "the CLOUD".

The Apple TV has 8GB of storage, so when you start streaming a TV show or movie it begins downloading the whole thing so internet interruptions don't mess up your viewing.

Hm. I guess it's a UI issue. It always appears as if its loading/streaming.

Surprise! If I remember right, Apple TV has a 4GB disk that it uses as a cache.

A router these days is basically a Linux server.

Probably more likely to be used for gathering usage data and phoning home. I'm not interested in giving Google access to all of my network activity.