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Sundar Pichai was the first to take the floor and informed us that there are more than 1 billion devices running Android and the global market share in tablets is 62 percent. One of the key following presentations, at least from the consumer’s point of view, is the new Android version, called Android L.
Android L version features
Continuing the tradition adopted by Google to name the next OS in alphabetical order, according to PhoneArena, Lollipop will be the name adopted for the new Android, but his has not been divulged so far during the keynote presentations. Will the new Android version bring substantial changes as opposed to the incremental changes brought by the Jelly Bean and Kit Kat versions?
From the presentations so far, it seems impressive, as Matias Duarte leads the design line on even more minimalistic terms than the Kit Kat version. ‘Material design’ is the new concept introduced by Duarte, which is transposed in the ability to use pixel depth in order to create shadows and a sort of 3D aspect of the apps. Another useful feature of the new Android L version is the presence of notifications on the lock screen, which will turn out to be a long term time saver for those who check their smartphone very often.
Although Android offers huge satisfaction to customers through its open source nature and inherent customization options, the lack of a unified Android experience similar to that delivered by Apple’ iOS; Hearing Sundar Pichai, the new head of the Android division declaring for Businessweek that “we now work together more closely on user experience than we ever have before” is a good sign in that direction. Instead of the expected elite program Android Silver, Pichai presented Android ONE, a hardware standard meant at easing the introduction of high quality cheap smartphones – less than 100$ – to emerging markets such as India.
Google I/O started at 9:00 AM PDT on June 25 and even though the Android L version was the highlight, we can hardly wait for the next announcements!
