My Top 10 Takeaways From Google I/O 2014

Google-IO-2014

In case you missed the memo, Google held it’s yearly developer conference, aptly titled Google I/O this week and made a ton of announcements. For those keeping score Google tends to announce a lot of cool new things at Google I/O however, like Google Buzz (remember that) some of these cool new innovations don’t quite reach prime.

Still, Google announced a ton of cool new things and rather than reading 50 articles across a zillion different tech blogs I’ve decided to put it all together in a nice, easy, digestible format. So if you’ve been in the dark about what Google announced at I/O this week, here are the highlights:

1. There are now over 30B 30-day active users and app installs increased by 236% y/y

2. Google announced Android One – a way to get more smartphones into developing countries

3. It’s official – Google beat Apple to making smart watches – it’s called Android Wear but just to be clear it’s not a replacement for your phone, it’s an extension of it, but it’s pretty cool, however I’ll wait until Apple has one 🙂 Everyone at the Google I/O event did get a free Android Wear Smartwatch which is pretty cool, and also shows how darn cheap these are to make (or how much money Google has depending on how you look at it.)

Android Wear

4. With smart watches comes the Android Wear SDK which allows developers to do all kinds of cool things like accessing sensors, etc.

5. Drumroll please – Android TV is here but it’s not what you think. It’s not a box like Apple or Roku, instead it’s a software platform that can be embedded into, well, everything, because Google likes to go big, really big. Get ready to see Android TV in Samsung, Sony and just about every other TV-maker on the planet.

6. There will be a massive shift in how people see apps and the web, and they might look the same. Yes, you heard it, Google is now trying to make apps and the web look like the same thing, it’s a big move, will probably take years to make sense to consumers but it’s happening. No it’s not going to kill domains, in fact it could make them even more relevant than ever before IMO. It’s called Android L and you can read more about it here.

7. Oh and some cool cloud stuff was released that might not really ever take off, or maybe it will. It’s called Cloud Dataflow, it’s a managed cloud data processing service, and something tells me it’s going to be confusing but it will still compete with Amazon, maybe.

8. A reporter literally fell asleep in his chair during the conference.

9. Google forgot to mention Google Glass. So um, yeah, this is awkward, that whole Google Glass thing that turned 0.0001% of the population into Borg look-alikes didn’t quite get a mention because well, it’s not going so well. Did you get a Google Glass? Do you think you’re cool, that’s about all the accolades you’ll get for now because it doesn’t look like much is happening there.

10. Google built a VR system for your phone made out of cardboard. No I’m not kidding, and yes Google is trying to poke fun at how much money Facebook paid for Oculus. Don’t believe me, just look at this:

google-cardboard
Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton