Highlights of Google I/O 2014

Nicholas Kamanzi July 10, 2014

1 minute read

Google I/O happened on the 24th-25th of June and there was a lot of new things that were talked about among which were a new developer preview of Android L, Android One, new metrics for Google cloud among other announcement. This is a sum up of the things that transpired in the Keynote At I/O

Mobile Momentum:

Google I/O 2014 kicked off with a keynote from Google VP Sundar Pichai, who started by giving an update of how numbers of active users on Android have really improved this year with Android active users increasing by more than 1 Billion. This might not have been news to some of the Android junkies but Mr. Pichai went on to break down to how 20 Billion texts and 93 Million Selfies are taken everyday by android users across the Globe and Android devices being checked more than 100 Billion Times a day. These were some thrilling statistics, the Android Tablets also saw a 62% increase from Last year’s 46% in shipments.

Platform Evolution:

A New developer preview of android was rolled out and it is called L developer Preview, I personally didn’t like the name but I think there is still a debate about the name, moving on it has one of the coolest designs because it is focused more on the depth and not the Pixel which has always been the case of most user mobile device designs. One of the reasons I think this design is coool is the way it matches the theme with the color in the background. Let say you are playing a song from Train and the background is Green, the theme in your phone will automatically turn to green to much your background. There are other details on Android L developer preview which you can read about here.

Google is trying to make the mobile the first experience you get and then the other devices around you to connect to that, and this was very evident in AndroidAuto, AndroidWear and AndroidTV announcements that prevailed in the keynote and how they are all centered on the mobile device.

Developer Success. On Developer Success Mr. Pichai announced that Google Play Games get 100 Million new users every 6 months and Google has paid over $5 Billion to developers since the last I/O in 2013. I find this thrilling news for both Game developers and the rest of mobile app developers across the world.

This is briefly what I found thrilling about the Keynote plus the giveaways which included the #cardboard and an LG G Watch or Samsung Gear for every attendee with a bonus Moto 360 when it becomes ready for shipping. Well hope you have enjoyed it and I will see you in the next one.