Member Article

Preparing for inspirational developer event Google I/O

As Google prepares for its biggest event of the year - Google I/O - Simon Howship, managing director of Huddersfield-based Common Agency, predicts what the inspirational technology showcase may hold in store…

“It looks set to be an exciting few days in San Francisco this coming week, as Google prepares for its biggest event of the year.

Google I/O (28-29 May) marks two days of inspirational talks, hands-on learning and a chance for developers around the world to hear more about Google’s latest products.

The ‘I’ stands for input and the ‘O’ for output, whilst also representing Innovation in the Open. Previous events have not disappointed, so what are the big stories that could come out of the 2015 gathering?

We’re not alone in thinking that a new Google Photo service could be announced. The much-rumoured development would be no surprise, given photography is one of the biggest enablers for mobile devices and Google+ was not the Facebook slayer that so many anticipated. Equally, Google must be keen to steal a march on Apple who have recently debuted their own new Photos service with integrated iCloud storage.

Google has been doing some really cool stuff with photos for some time – if you haven’t tried Google Auto Awesome on your Android device for instance, you’re missing out. But any new photo service from Google is likely to have expanded cloud storage functionality – beyond that of Google Drive –plus new sharing features to tap into the Facebook and Twitter crowds.

Google I/O 2015 may also see the next incarnation of Google’s mobile operating software, Android M unveiled. If we do hear about Android M next week will it actually have the alleged fingerprint authentication feature, to allow the user to open any of their apps or Google services with the simple touch of a finger? I suppose we must wait and see.

We, for sure, are also expecting there to be a lot of noise around wearables again this year. Will Google do anything to head off Apple on the watch front? New Apple Watch adopters are likely to switch from Android to iPhone, presenting a potentially big risk to the Android device base. So will Google bring us a new wearable that none of us have thought of? Could Google Glass make a return?

We’ll undoubtedly hear a lot about televisions too. Sony is about to launch its new 2015 range of TVs, with some fabulous 4K models and, interestingly, with Android TV installed. Google are, quite rightly, likely to make a fanfare about this at Google I/O, especially as we understand they’re keen for Android TV to be embraced by the development community.

Beyond that, who knows? Google is a huge global player in helping steer ‘what’s next’ in our space, so there are bound to be things that even the most forward thinking tech gurus are unable to anticipate.

Unfortunately our in-house native mobile app specialists won’t be jetting off on a plane to see the California event in person – we’ll be watching it in real-time via a live stream from our Yorkshire HQ. But we’re excited nonetheless.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .