My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Google IO Statistics - A Future Past of Growing Strong for All of @Android's Children and a Future with @Google ATAP Projects

Friday, June 12, 2015

Google IO Statistics - A Future Past of Growing Strong for All of @Android's Children and a Future with @Google ATAP Projects

Google I/O 2015 exploded onto the Technology scene over a two (2) days span from Thursday May 28th 2015 and Friday May 29th 2015 as stated in the article “Google IO 2015: news, rumors and predictions”, published March 23 2015, By Michelle Fitzsimmons Techradar.

 

The Technology showcase by the Mountain View, California based Company highlighted new products that they're launching in June 2015 and their planned products for the rest of the year as noted in the article “Google I/O 2015 recap: Android M, Android Pay, free photo storage and new VR plans”, published May 28, 2015 by Lori Grunin, CNET News. This mainly includes:

1.      Android M, the latest iteration of their Mobile OS
2.      Android Wear updates for their wearables market
3.      Google Pay and their expansion into Mobile Wallets
4.      Cardboard VR fold-to-use push into Virtual Reality using smartphones
5.      Google Photo, their Unlimited Free Cloud for pictures and Video for all Platforms

The first three (3) are no surprise as I'd basically predicted them in my Geezam blog article entitled “Google IO 2015 - Google Android VR coming as Android Wear turns it up a Notch”.

However, the last two (2) are new kids on the block. Google is making a slow and steady push into Virtual Reality but with an emphasis on affordability and access to all, no matter your budget or the type of Smartphone you have.

Their Cardboard VR, which toymaker Mattel is now using to re-launch the View-Master, is also a part of Google's ambitions to push into Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, possibly by making a version of Android for VR Headsets as predicted in my blog article entitled “@google to develope Google @Android for VR - Why a VR and AR War is looming on the Horizon in 2016”.

Google Photo is also a bit of a surprise.  Not only does this app, which is a currently in the Google Play Store and the Apple iTunes Store work on Google Android smartphones and Apple
iPhone, but it is also a challenger to other photo storage apps because of its unlimited storage of photos and video footage.

This beats out Apple Photo App, Yahoo Flickr App and even Dropbox's Loom App as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Dropbox acquires iOS App Loom as it steamrolls towards the launch of its IPO”.

Google ATAP Projects - IoT Clothing, Secure microSD Cards

Google's advanced Projects from Google's ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) Team is pushing the boundaries of what is possible with hardware and software were also on show as reported in the article “Here's What Was Significant At Google I/O 2015”, published 6/02/2015 by Quora, Forbes:

1.      Project Soli - Improved gestures tracking Processor on a Chip
2.      Project Jacquard - Clothing meets IoT, marking trend in connected wearables
3.      Project Vault - Secure play area on a micro-SD Cards using self-encrypting algorithms
4.      Project Brillo - Google's IoT version of Android using Nest for home automation

Truly, the machines are basically set to take over, especially as we now are so dependent on our Fitness Trackers to keep us fit and healthy as pointed out in my blog article entitled “IDC Stats for Wearables in the First Quarter of 2015 - US$13 Mi Band Fitness Monitor Xiaomi No. 2 as Apple Watch to dominate Smartwatch segment by Q4 2015”.

Google I/O Statistics - A year of Growing Strong for All of Android's Children

But for me personally, being more of an Apple fan than a Google Fan, it was the statistics that came out of Google I/O that caught my eye as reported in the article “Google I/O by the
numbers: 1B Android users, 900M on Gmail”, published 28 May 2015 by Max Taves and Richard Nieva, CNET News

1.      2 million people stream from Google Android products on six (6) continents
2.      1 billion Android users worldwide
3.      8 out of 10 or 80% of all phones are Google Android smartphones

These figures might be in part due to the success of the Google Play store, their answer to the Apple iTunes Store. Gmail, their April's Fool joke from 2014, is no joke, as it's trippin’ the light fantastic, coming in fourth place the following services:

1.      Google Search
2.      YouTube
3.      Google Maps
4.      Google Play

Google Play is also getting huge support, which is not a surprise as Apps are the main reason why people like smartphones:

1.      1 billion active users of Google Play
2.      50 billion applications installed from the Google Play Store
3.      900 million people worldwide use Gmail

Android Wear, Google's smartwatch OS, is slowly getting some love from OEM and Developers along with Android Pay:

1.      7 OEM (Original Equiptment Manufacturers) of smartwatches running Android Wear
2.      4000 Android Wear Apps
3.      700,000 Stores in the US of A will work with Android Pay

Finally, some of Google most recent products launched in 2014 are slowly gaining traction. They set the stage for Google's push into possibly manufacturing All-Electric Vehicles as well as

1.      35 Partners for Android Auto, basically an Operating System for your Car
2.      1 million people worldwide use Google Cardboard VR to experience Virtual Reality

Most of these figures, quoted for a twelve (12) month period by various speakers during Google I/O 2015, are not surprising. I just hope that the new Guinea-Pig Projects and other experimental products bear fruit during the following months instead of being re-announced at Google I/O 2016!






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