With less than a week to go before the Google I/O conference of 2015, the web always manages to move a bit faster than usual, and thanks to that, some details of what we'll see there have begun to surface. One of them is Brillo, a theoretical platform focused on the so-called Internet of Things. Brillo would be based on Android, with extensive modifications that would allow it to run on much more humble hardware than what we find in today's smartphones.
According to official statistics, Lollipop already holds about ten percent of the Android market. Fragmentation of its mobile operating system is one of the thorns in Google's side, and there's no sign it will improve anytime soon. Another issue is Android's requirements. Lollipop is more adaptable, but its demands remain relatively high. From a certain point of view, Android demands more hardware than several desktop operating systems, which in turn keeps the vicious cycle of fragmentation alive. However, the future poses other challenges. The Internet of Things whispers wonderful stories full of sensors and microcontrollers that need tailor-made software. As we know it, Android has no place in that future, but the Mountain View giant seems to have devised a plan.
The codename is Brillo, and according to The Information, it's a special operating system that will likely be released under the Android brand, with much lower memory requirements—between 32 and 64 megabytes. As appliances become smarter, manufacturers are adding more and more hardware to their designs, but software must adapt to new rules. Performance losses are not an option, and if we have to start updating operating systems in refrigerators and washing machines, the Internet of Things landscape will be very dark. If the optimizations in Brillo are deep enough, Google could solve both problems in one go.
Still, we must emphasize the word could. For one thing, this isn't the first time Google has tried to bring Android into homes (if you don't remember Android@Home, I can't blame you). On the other hand, even with a memory demand eight times lower, Brillo would still be far above the specs of the average microcontroller, which counts memory in kilobytes. All the answers should arrive next Thursday, when the new edition of Google I/O opens its doors.
The Information
