Google narrows Android Things focus to smart speakers and displays

News Wireless Global 13 FEB 2019
Google narrows Android Things focus to smart speakers and displays

Google announced that it's narrowing the focus of its Android Things IoT platform to smart speakers and smart displays. Google said it has seen the most success with these product categories and so will refocus Android Things as a platform for OEM partners to build devices in those categories moving forward. Support for production modules based on NXP, Qualcomm and MediaTek chips will not be made available through the public developer platform any longer.

Previously known as Brillo, Android Things was only made official last year. It offers SDKs to manufacturers to build-in Android features such as the Google Assistant in their devices. Google said it will still offer a platform for experimenting with the Android Things SDK on popular hardware like the NXP i.MX7D and Raspberry Pi 3B. System images for these boards will remain available through the Android Things console where developers can create new builds and push app updates for up to 100 devices for non-commercial use.

The company also continues to offer a platform for managing a wider range of IoT devices, through Google Cloud services. The service Cloud IoT Core offers secure device connectivity at scale for developers, and the upcoming Cloud IoT Edge runtime will provide for a suite of managed edge computing services, Google said. 

Categories:

Mobile

Companies:

Qualcomm,  Google,  MediaTek

Regions:

Global

Tags:

Consumer devices, Corporate strategy, Research and development

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