Google kicks off Android home invasion

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 12 May 2011 12:06

Opinion and Analysis

For the past couple of years a number of companies have been employing Android in a range of non-mobile applications. With Google now focussing on the home appliance and home networking market the industry is likely to accelerate rapidly.

At its I/O developer conference in San Francisco earlier this week Google showed a sneak preview of its Android@Home project, which will extend the Android platform into household objects.

Wired reported this development saying: "The first Android smartphone came in 2008. Then in 2010, the platform appeared on tablets. Now, Android wants to move into your home."

That is nothing new. Almost two years ago, in an piece on this site headed "Get Ready for the Android home invasion" I said: "A series of recent developments point to the Android software platform, developed for mobile devices, finding its way into a whole range of smart household appliances by the end of this year."

OK, so my timing was a bit out, but blame that on San Francisco based company Touch Revolution, which had been reported by Forbes magazine saying: "a string of well-known companies" would introduce a variety of Android-powered household gadgets before the end of 2009.

However I did point out that there was already considerable momentum behind Android's push into the home, in particular the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), an organisation founded in Japan in February 2009 focused on driving Android beyond mobile handsets and of which Google had been reported as saying: "We give our all-out support to the aim of the OESF. We are holding high expectations for the OESF's activities, as our activities are concentrating on the mobile phone market. We hope the OESF will cooperate with the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and promote developments that do not overlap with the OHA's projects."

With the unveiling of Android@Home, Google has clearly expanded its Android horizons and while Wired, and Google might portray this as a pioneering initiative it will in reality legitimise and accelerate an industry that has been quietly developing for the past couple of years beneath the radar as Android has gathered momentum in the mobile market.

Wired, suitably impressed by Google's demo of Android@Home, said: "Google explains it has essentially created a framework to control wireless communication between objects in your house'¦That means some day in the future, you could control home appliances- your dishwasher, the heating system, the lights in your house - using your Android device as a remote control."

CONTINUED