The schedule for Google IO 2012 has been released, and it doesn’t look like there are any sessions dedicated to hardware. This is kind of surprising, considering how much attention was paid to HW last year. At Google IO 2011 a good 15 minutes of the Day 1 Keynote was spent discussing the open accessory API, plus Android @ Home and Project Tungsten. There were technical sessions dedicated to the Open Accessory API, Cloud Robotics, and NFC. And remember the giant “labyrinth” game set up to demonstrate on a large scale? Google hasn’t done a whole lot since then to promote these different projects. I’m not sure if they’ve pushed Android@Home or Tungsten at all, although I guess there are some rumors about a multimedia device going around.
Even beyond the lack of continued support for things they announced last year, there have also been a few developments since then that should be worthy of a few sessions, right?
- Google has an autonomous vehicle, and even a license to operate on the road! But no sessions to discuss the self-driving car project?
- Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility, one of the premier mobile device makers. Not a whole lot has been said about this, but I guess they’ve been waiting for approval (and I see that just today China has approved the deal)
- Google is now selling the Galaxy Nexus device direct to consumers, which is a pretty big shift in hardware delivery strategy
[…] Lack of hardware focus at Google IO 2012? […]