In 2016, Google displayed its vision for a more pervasive and conventional way of interacting with technology. This year, we experienced the company’s focus on more of hardware offerings and launch of top notch devices such as The Android Wear 2.0, Daydream View VR headset, Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, Google Home Speaker, Chromecast Ultra and Google Wi-Fi router, were met with a good market response.
Google also announced improvements to Android by launching a new major update to the software, Android Nougat 7.1.1, which will be available for most of the android devices by early 2017. There was Google Duo as well, the FaceTime competitor, dedicated to a video-only experience, and not to forget Google Allo, the messaging app with a resident chatbot, the Google Assistant.
2017 will be a year to look forward for the launch of some of the highly anticipated Google devices such as:
Pixel 2.0: The Google Pixel Smartphone made a remarkable sale and was a huge success in the 2016. The successor of this phone is supposedly arriving in 2017 with its new and possibly fresh design, and is rumored to have a water-proof body, just like the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S7. One of the many things that Pixel fans are expecting is that the 2017 Pixel phones will have a much better camera performance, especially in low-light conditions. The current models of Pixel and XL feature 12.3 MP and 8 MP cameras, front and rear respectively.
While the Pixel is compatible with the Daydream View VR headset, the new device is expected to have augmented reality (AR) features based on the Google Tango platform.
Google Glass 2: Early glimpses at the Google Glass Enterprise Edition reveal a similar device to the original Explorer Edition. It will still include a display, camera, and touchpad attached to a small frame, though this time it appears to feature a flexible hinged design and will be powered by an Intel CPU, and there’ll also be support for 5GHz Wi-Fi.
The Google Glass in 2012 was widely appreciated, but Google shut down the project in 2015 over lack of sufficient AR content.
Android Wear 2.0 Smartwatches: The first quarter of 2017 can expect the launch of two new smartwatches, while they might not come with Google or Pixel branding, but instead have the name of the manufacturer. They are expected to have new features such as standalone apps that can function without a smartphone, Android Pay support and Google Assistant support, resulting to become one of the toughest competitor of the Apple iWatch.
Most of what Android Wear pushes to view is just a copy of the notifications you’re used to seeing on your phone, but it’ll also deliver some thoughtful, personalized notifications. It is promising to feature voice recognition, location sensing, weather and calendar alerts, widgets, built-in GPS, and also more focus on fitness tracking through Google Fit is expected. Android Wear is compatible with phones running Android 4.3 or above. It even has limited iOS compatibility, for iOS 8.2 or above.
Google Robot: Atlas, the humanoid robot created by the Alphabet company and Boston Dynamics, can open doors, balance while walking through the snow, place objects on a shelf and pick itself up after being knocked down. Atlas was created to perform disaster recovery in places unsafe for humans, such as damaged nuclear power plants.
The robot made its debut in 2013 during a competition held by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The new version of Atlas is a result of seven computer research teams from around the world who were contracted to develop software to give Atlas a better brain.
Google has always managed to amaze us with its diverse collection of new found technologies and astounding updates. 2017 could definitely be a game changer for Google, considering the launch of the the above futuristic devices that we believe will be splashy and highly profitable.
