GOOGLE PARTNERS QUALCOMM, TO EMBED ANDROID THINGS OS IN SNAPDRAGON CHIPS.

The world of technology is rapidly expanding, and everyone wants to be the first to break the grounds in one kind of new technology because let’s face it, the first would get the most patents and also get to make the most money off it. The first time that we were down this road in a long time, we started to hear about artificial intelligence and luckily enough for a lot of companies, they were able to jump on it individually at the same time, paving the way for a lot of success. Then came the concept of virtual reality with and augmented reality. To cap it all off, it seems that the next best thing that people are talking about with tags going back to technology is the Internet of Things (IoT), and anyone who might have thought that this technology is not here to stay would have to rethink that decision now.

Like they have developed the pure Android OS for their devices and every other manufacturer that would love to license the open source software, they also made the Android Watch OS for their wearables. Now, they have the Android Things in the pipeline – an operating system that would be able to like their things to the internet and guide it with specific developer controls. This deal with QUALCOMM then borders on the infusion of the kind of software Google would develop with future Snapdragon processors that would be coming from Qualcomm, making them a perfect fit when the time comes for the massive production of such things.

If this move is carefully managed and properly planned, it could just be the biggest break that the search engine giant would ever get in this field. This would mean that they would be the go-to software developer whenever anyone wants to develop an Internet of Things platform of their own using the powerful chipsets supplied by Qualcomm. Given that Qualcomm has just bought off NXP, which gives them access to connect devices ranging from just automobiles to houses, this puts Google in a better position of power to be the biggest fish in the food chain of IoT. Releasing a blog post to the effect of their research on IoT, Google has done well to release a detailed blog post. Note those other tech giants are not resting on their oars also, with Microsoft already having the Windows 10 OT which is capable of working on both ARM and Intel.

Given that it is a new technology, anyone that wants to venture into the field of IoT would already have it at the back of their minds that they might just be going in for the most complex tasks of all. This is because the mere development requires a lot of developers coming together to work on connectivity, sensors for the ‘thing,’ the data processing and storage capabilities, security interface and cloud integration, device management, user interface and upgrade services to mention but a few. To make things even worse, working under a fragmented OS ecosystem doesn’t do anyone any good because there would neither be a consistent environment nor would there be the software tools and support available to make something meaningful out of it. This is what the agreement between QUALCOMM and Google aims to address.

From what QUALCOMM has said, they are planning to ease the burden on developers, and they have promised to make sure that the Android Things embedded into their Snapdragon chipsets would make a familiar coding environment available to the developer. For connectivity options ranging from cellular and Wi-Fi to Bluetooth, ensuring that they have a ton of sensors at their back and call to choose from and not neglect the camera and graphics interface of the overall design, all these and more is what the chip maker has in mind. This would allow for faster development of world class technology under the canopy of IoT and also, keep everything cost effective since it is being done on the same platform. In the long run, this is starting to look like what Google did by letting other developers use its software, and how good QUALCOMM has gotten at everything and anything Android too.

Already, Android Things is available in developer preview, and we expect it to be released even more openly next year when new QUALCOMM chipsets start to roll out into the market.