Google Inc’s Android software is coming to cars, televisions and watches this year, as the Internet search giant races against Apple Inc and other tech companies to extend its business into a rapidly broadening field of Internet-connected devices.
Google’s free Android software runs on more than three out of every four smartphones sold globally: a valuable entry point for consumers to access its money-making online services such as Web search and maps.
At its annual developers’ conference on Wednesday, the company said the first cars running Android Auto software for navigation, music and messaging will hit showrooms later this year.
Photo: Reuters
More than 40 auto companies had signed onto its software development alliance, but Google did not say which ones will actually build Android into their cars next year.
Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Co smartwatches running Android Wear, the version of Android tailored for wearable devices, went on sale later on Wednesday.
And executives demonstrated how Android TV, reviving Google’s foray into streaming video, aims to give viewers an easy interface through which to search for and display content. The TV version of Android comes four years after Google’s first effort to enter the living room, via Google TV, failed to catch on with consumers.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s a land grab,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with investment bank B. Riley & Co. “The person who gets a platform which controls the devices could be the dominant operating system, not of just devices, it could be the operating system of your home.”
“New platforms offer new opportunities for hardware sales, advertising sales, e-commerce sales, all of these,” Sinha said.
Google also unveiled a service, called “Google Fit,” which collates and tracks a user’s health and personal fitness information similar to recently introduced services from Apple and Samsung. The tracking and analysis of health information is expected to become a big driver behind the adoption of smartwatches and other sensor-laden devices this year.
Google’s annual conference is designed to introduce new Android features to its army of developers, who are crucial in creating apps that keep the software popular as it competes with Apple’s iOS.
Apple and Google are now going head-to-head in emerging countries like India and China, where there remains room to grow in terms of smartphone adoption.
Google said it is working with three manufacturers to develop a sub-US$100 smartphone for the Indian market this fall.
Developed under the “Android One” initiative aimed at getting phones into the hands of as many people around the globe as possible, the phones will sport 4.5-inch screens and dual SIM cards, Google senior vice president Sundar Pichai told the conference.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained