Exit Android 4.3 delayed - Proceedings

Photo: google.com

With the completion of a large annual conference Google I / O, on the development of operating systems, Android and Chrome OS, browser Chrome, various Google services and communicate with developers, it finally became clear that the most expected from this event event does not take place. Despite the fact that the probability of the announcement of the new version of Android in the second or third day of the event was very small, small chance that Google will make a nice gesture, and at the last moment to announce one more thing in the style of Apple, remained.

Instead of the presentation of the new version of Android, Google introduced a large number of new services targeted at a wide range of users. So was demonstrated service music subscriptions somewhat clunky name Google Play Music All Access. Currently, he is very similar to what is on offer services such as Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Xbox Music and Nokia Music, the standard price of $ 9.99 it offers a monthly subscription, which enables us to unlimited music, selected on the basis of service social analysis. While the geography of the service is not very high – it’s only available in the U.S., then plans to cover the UK, France, Germany and Spain. For information on when this service will be available in Russia, is still unknown.

Another important service that received the update is Google Maps, according to company officials, this is the biggest redesign of the cards since their inception eight years ago. The key changes can be called a marked improvement of the interface for the browser version that allows you to change the map on-line in accordance with the requests, display the weather, attractions, user photos and reviews of the various institutions.

updates were made and carefully cultivates Google services – Google+. Its interface is also redesigned, making it easier to take in information about the activities of friends in a social network. Part of the update is a new service Google+ Hangouts, built on the basis of previous messaging service Google Talk, – it allows you to exchange text messages, create Hangouts and share files between registered in Google+ users.

Of the large number of other updates and announcements of interest is the new service Google Play Game, which allows Google to finally compete with Apple’s Game Center and the Xbox Live service from Microsoft. The essence of it is quite traditional – the organization of multi-player games, saving game progress, share achievements, etc. In order to take advantage of the new service, developers need to build his support to their already released or new games.

In general presentation of Google and even got off to a slow, but it was very saturated important for the entire industry announcements and no news about the release of the next version of Android. In this case, Google could be several reasons to do so. First of all, we can point to the fact that Google has taken a strong dominant position in the global smartphone market – 900 million Android-devices, or 75% of the global market, can not stop worrying so much about the share of Apple and especially do not look back at Microsoft’s efforts in this area.

addition, perhaps, Google did not hurry up with the announcement of a new version of Android including because its competitors do nothing substantial has been announced – the presentation of Windows Blue and iOS while only 7 are coming, and Google may well wait to remind competitors of their presence is somewhat closer to the respective dates.

important factor is the fact that Google has not yet managed to overcome the main problem of devices on Android – fragmentation. Until now, much of the existing Android-smartphone does not receive timely updates, which impact on the level of security, stability and performance. Therefore, accelerating the development of the next version of the OS, which does not “come” to most of the current owners of devices based on this platform, can create a reason for criticism and even disappointment. It is noteworthy that those announcements that were made during the Google I / O, has been aimed at existing users – new applications and services are distributed through Google Play, and not by updating the operating system itself.

However, rumors suggest that the Android 4.3 update will be soon enough – in June or July, but details are scarce. For example, it is known only that the new version will support Bluetooth Smart – features that not disable Bluetooth for continuous interaction with various external devices such as smart watches or bracelets to monitor physical activity.