TOKYO: In 2015, Google is probably going to do much the same. Android “M” (milkshake, maybe?) will likely be unveiled at Google I/O this upcoming summer, we’ll probably see a round of new Nexus hardware come later in the year, Google will likely keep pushing Chromebooks in the affordable segment of the PC market, and Android Wear devices from countless manufacturers will continue to get thinner and have better and better battery life. But Google surely has some drastic innovation planned in a variety of areas, as well, with the potential return of Google Glass on the horizon and the second spiral of Project Ara to be unveiled in a couple of weeks.
The most obvious prediction we can probably make about next year is that Google will all-but-surely be announcing a new iteration of its Android operating system. Following the dessert-themed naming scheme of the previous several years, the company will be calling it something that begins with the letter M, and will likely be version 5.1. But unlike previous years, Android Wear is probably going to see the same update (or at least some version of it).
As for what the update is likely to have, we can pretty much assume that while it’s surely going to add several useful features, this isn’t going to be the kind of complete overhaul we saw in 2014 with Lollipop.
Material Design is in, and that’s surely not going to change with the version of Android we see this summer. But this doesn’t mean it’s not going to be an exciting release, as some of the most exciting releases of Android ever have been focused on stabilizing the platform.
While Google has been focusing on smartphones and Android Wear this year, it did spend time at Google I/O 2014 to announce two more forks of Android: TV, and Auto.
Android TV saw its debut in the form of the Nexus Player (which, notably, is practically Google’s one hundredth attempt at capturing the living room), but this time it seems like they might be doing something right, and maybe, just maybe, people will begin to see a need for an Android TV device on top of their HDMI-dongle Chromecast.
Android Auto is still listed as “Coming Soon” on Google’s website and that’s because, well, it’s still coming soon. No Android Auto-equipped cars have made it to market, and one of the first to do so is going to be the 2015 Volvo XC90 which will likely see release this upcoming spring. That said, as many as 28 car manufacturers have agreed to release at least one car with Google’s new car version of Android built-in, and these are going to start flooding in over the course of 2015. Aftermarket units are getting Android Auto next year, too.
