Google I/O is going to have a very different feel from previous years, at least when it comes to product announcements and, potentially, giveaways. The conference has always focused on developers, but there was an expectation from the outside community that big new hardware would be floated alongside a new version of Android, for example.
Google’s new joint head of Android and Chrome, Sundar Pichai, spoke to Wired over the weekend and downplayed any big product announcements for the three-day conference.
“It’s going to be different,” he said. “It’s not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system. Both on Android and Chrome, we’re going to focus this I/O on all of the kinds of things we’re doing for developers, so that they can write better things. We will show how Google services are doing amazing things on top of these two platforms.”
While this doesn’t remove the possibility of a new product, or at least a refresh of an existing one, it minimizes the likelihood of the rumoured Motorola X-Phone or a Nexus 5; we’re much more likely to see a LTE-enabled Nexus 4 or updated Nexus 7 tablet.
With hardware not a major focal point of the conference, it looks like Google will announce a unified messaging service called Hangouts, which will unite the current Google Talk, Google Voice and Google+ Messaging into one hub on Android and the web. Also likely is Google Play Games, a new match-making and synchronized saved game service.
There’s also a good chance we’ll see a new version of Android, version 4.3 Jelly Bean. Pichai told Wired that he wants to slow down the considerable pace of Android development from a consumer perspective by releasing major versions less frequently, while focusing on small iterative updates that are easier for hardware manufacturers to implement. Now that versions of Android above 4.0 make up more than 50% of devices there is a since that developing for the platform is not only easier but more enjoyable.
“We are thinking about how to make Android handle updates better,” said Pichai. “We see ways we can do this. It’s early days. We’re talking with our partners and working our way through it. We need time to figure out the mechanics, but it’s definitely an area of focus for me and for the team.”
With Google I/O only two days away, there is a lot of speculation as to what we’ll see. Perhaps more important than that, however, is what we won’t see.
Source: Wired
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