An Internet of Things version of Android could be shown at next week’s Google I/O

Android M may not be the only version of Android we see at next week’s Google I/O. According to a report from The Information, Google is creating an operating system specifically tailored to work with a variety of small Internet-connected devices that it will unveil at its annual developer conference.

Codenamed Brillo, the operating system is reportedly being developed by a team within the company’s Android division, and is part of Google’s Internet of Things (IoT) play.

The report doesn’t go in to detail describing what Brillo will look like, though it does say that at launch it may not look like a traditional operating system that can run apps and services. In part, this is because the system is designed to function with as little as 32 or 64 megabytes of RAM, a far cry from the 512 megabytes smartphones need to run Android.

Of course, Google is not the only company attempting to take advantage of the huge opportunity the Internet of Things represents. Last week, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will have an IoT component.

In 2014, Cisco published a report that said there are now more things connected to the Internet than there are people in the world. At the time, the company estimated that the emerging IoT market would be worth $19-trillion USD by the end of 2022. Canada is expected to see $500-billion of that market.

[source]The Information[/source]