This year’s I/O is going to be very interesting.
y? Because ‘s Android boss, Sundar chai, just announced an Android SDK for wearables. It’s not just for glasses smart watches—it’s for anything that utilizes sensors.
” see an ecosystem for all these devices,” chai said during his talk. ” want to develop a set of common portals so they all work together.”
The SDK won’t be out for about two weeks, but when it goes live it’ll introduce a whole new chapter in ‘s gadget story. th Motorola’s hardware business being recently hed over to novo the nascent Glass in the throes of bad press, it’s the smartest move could make right now to ensure it keeps up with everyone else in the business.
A future with
t’s take a quick inventory of where ‘s services are available right now: phones, tablets, computers (via the Chrome browser its Chrome OS), home automation (Nest, anyone?), TVs, cars. ‘s wearable SDK should help bring the spectrum full circle.
An open wearable SDK means that can continue to propagate its mostly-open ecosystem. Your watch will sync your data with a -bred fitness app, while your sensor-laden jacket will send weather data back to HQ so that Now can display the Card with the outside temperature. You’ll know exactly how hot or cold you are at all times.
Various wearable devices also translates to more gadgets with screens, all of which will likely be able to flash advertisements, or at least collect data about your life so that when you log into Gmail or any other service, every advertisement will be perfectly catered to your life.
More opportunities to reach more users also translates to more money being pooled into ay’s goods services. The music you bought on your Android tablet earlier in the day will become immediately available once you climb into the car. And as you step out to head into the gym, your fitness b will have already loaded that quick mix of dance tracks to keep you moving.
Not just smart watches
th this new wearables SDK, is actually inviting in a myriad of possibilities. It means wearables-focused apps that aren’t limited to the sensors embedded within a pair of glasses or the camera lens on a wristwatch; it also means products that can also take full advantage of every bit of Android’s various As.
ile we don’t have an exact idea of what the wearable devices will look like, it appears that is taking the wait–see approach. Rather than immediately toss a device out there risk negative feedback from consumers—as Samsung did with the first-generation Galaxy Gear— will instead mine comments suggestions from the Android-programming elite those who could offer more insight on what it is consumers are pining for.
The search giant is expected to launch its smart watch in ne, so will have about two months of feedback from developers to help inspire the finished product. It’s the smartest strategy at this point for a company that’s held off on the wrist-wearables trend— no one wants a repeat of the Nexus Q.
st a precursor to something greater
One of ‘s primary intentions is to promote innovation with its open platforms. If a team of developers happens to cook up with something truly remarkable, benefits from that. It’s happened before with Android it’s especially prevalent with Ventures, which essentially throws money at projects that pique the interest of the company’s venture capitalists.
th an open wearables SDK, is on the hunt for something greater—something that trumps what Samsung, Sony, or even Apple is doing. It could be an application or it could be hardware, but the Next Big Thing from could surface from this menial package of code. The possibilities are endless.
In two weeks, we’ll have a better understing of what ‘s wearables vision is really like where it’s headed. It’s unclear how malleable the wearables SDK will be after all, or which of Android’s native functions it will implement, but we’re looking forward to seeing what will become of all this. And we’re expecting to at least offer a post mortem on what it’s found by the time we’re in our seats for the I/O keynote.
