Google's open-source OS has come from nowhere to global mobile dominance. Gaming and the internet of things are next in its sights for 2014.
lan Cohen, former director of systems engineering at Logic PD, which makes miniature medical devices, has decades of experience working with operating systems such as Windows Embedded or Linux. But these days he prefers a different blend of software: Android.
"It's a great choice for sophisticated purpose-built devices with rich human interfaces," says Cohen. "[It's] a platform that nicely handles many of the issues developers encounter when building sophisticated embedded systems."
He's not alone in his point of view. Normally associated with phones and tablets -- Android powers 80 per cent of the world's smartphones and features in about 900 million devices worldwide -- Google's mobile operating system is powering an ever-widening array of devices. It's now being used in connected watches such as the Sony SmartWatch, fitness devices such as Motorola's MOTOACTV, Samsung's Wi-Fi-enabled fridges, Saab's iQon in car entertainment system and the Polaroid SC1630 smart camera. And the ease in which it can be customised means that in 2014 it will become the developers' open-source platform of choice.
In June 2013, Julie Uhrman, former vice president, digital at GameFly, based in Los Angeles, launched a potentially groundbreaking games console on Kickstarter. The diminutive OUYA games box raised more than $8.5 million (£5.4 million) on the site, making it one of the most successful crowdsourcing campaigns ever. The hardware was styled by celebrity designer Yves Behar, but -- thanks to Android -- it was made from cheap, off-the-shelf parts, which allowed Uhrman to keep the price below £65 per unit.
According to Uhrman, her Android console is democratising the world of gaming, opening it up to indies and not just the big publishers on the Xbox and PlayStation. Dubbed the "people's console", OUYA already claims that more than 12,000 developers, including Final Fantasy creator Square Enix, have signed up to work with them.
As more and more devices get connected to the internet of things, Android will become the operating system that powers everything. And it might be Google's most important leg-up in its fight with Apple.
Android was first conceived as a system for building networked cameras, but it rapidly diversified. It's now backed by the Open Handset Alliance, a powerful consortium of 84 hardware and software vendors that includes giants such as Samsung Electronics and HTC. Android has become the foundation for some of the most popular devices in the consumer electronics world, including smash-hit bestsellers such as Samsung's Galaxy S4, which sold a record ten million units in the first month, and Amazon's Kindle range.
The open and customisable nature of Android allows it to be used on a wide range of electronics. It's as easy to use as Windows CE, but, because it is free and open source, developers don't have to pay any licensing fees, which can add up with high-volume devices. And they're able to adapt and modify the code base as they see fit -- something Microsoft would never allow.
It's also well suited to today's advanced devices, which are smarter and better connected than previous models. Off the shelf, Android handles a range of complex functions, such as graphics, communications and database support. "There's tremendous built-in functionality out of the box that must be cobbled together -- usually with significant pain -- when using other platforms and operating systems," says Cohen.
Android is not always ideal, however. It is overkill for dumber devices such as sensors or actuators that don't need a rich human interface. It is a good fit for a hospital monitor, say, that responds to touchscreen commands from hospital staff, but is overpowered for a wearable heart sensor that just beams information to a smartphone.
0 comments:
Post a Comment