Google I/O Conference: It's just a gesture, but it also reveals frustration

Recently, the high-profile 2016 Google I/O conference was held as scheduled. The entire conference looked a bit flat, although some commentators gave this I/O conference a higher evaluation such as ambition, but from our perspective Look, in addition to the core of Android, Google to the outside world and trigger Lenovo's more posture and frustration.

Let's take a look at Daydream VR, the industry’s most concerned about being “soft” by rumors of VR hardware.

Daydream VR

Undoubtedly, Google's Daydream VR is hoping to build "Android" in the VR industry and establish its own standards again. However, what we would like to say is that when current VR shipments are not high and have already been highly fragmented (Facebook, HTC, Sony, etc. all have their own standards and content), is it a good time to establish their own standards? In this regard, some commentators believe that in the future, the VR industry is likely to present a state where multiple systems can attract a certain user base, so even if they are incompatible with each other, they can still coexist, so in a longer period of time VR market Fragmentation is more serious than other computing devices in the past. In a sense, this is more worthy of attention than anyone who can become a winner. In view of the fact that Android has been criticized in the smart phone industry for being open due to the openness of the industry, the value of having Android is greatly reduced (most manufacturers use open Android to customize their own system and build their own application store bypassing Google Play). The fact that Daydream VR will repeat the mistakes of Android?

In fact, due to the fragmentation of the VR industry in the early stage, we believe that Google is not as independent as its own hardware and software VR ecosystem. After all, Google has other rivals in both the current and the future. Does not have its own content platform YouTube. Therefore, we believe that the release of Daydream VR is just a gesture that Google has shown to the outside world that it is open in the VR field. Whether this strategy is applicable to the VR industry and how effective are all variables.

In addition to VR, another industry-focused concern is Google’s release of Google Home, Google’s latest release, and once again demonstrates Google’s ambitions in smart homes. However, just like many people in the industry, when we saw Google Home's specific product form (speaker), the first thing that came to mind was Amazon's Echo, which was hot recently, and Google, which had been high hopes in the industry, had previously acquired $3.2 billion. The development of home smart smoke detector manufacturers Nest. At that time, it was thought by outsiders that Google had ambitious plans for the smart home and the Internet of Things. However, in 2015, Nest had only received 340 million U.S. dollars in revenue, which was far lower than the revenue target set by Google when it was acquired. As a result, executives have left their jobs. It can be said that Google’s intention to use Nest as its core smart home strategy has made unfavorable progress. It is not an exaggeration to describe it even with failure.

In fact, what we want to discuss here is that in the so-called smart home, what kind of product can become the core of smart home, thermostat, speaker or router (after all, different companies have different smart home cores), but from Google’s Google Home product is undoubtedly emulating Amazon. In fact, the function of Amazon Echo is far less powerful than what the industry sees. It is just the weather forecast, adding schedule, playing music, and so on. So, just like VR, when Google took the new Google Home to fight the smart home market again, it was actually more of a result of frustration before it was reconsidered. And Echo, which is highly similar to Amazon, shows that Google still seems to be still in the smart home. Failed to find the right breakthrough for yourself.

The release of Android Wear 2.0, the second version of Android Wear for wearable devices (such as smartwatches), is nothing more than Google's position on the wearable market, after all, from the entire wearable device market, especially smart. In the watch market, the decline in the sales of leading Apple watches, Android Android Wear far behind to achieve the performance of Google Android in the smart phone market is still far away, more importantly, Apple's tepid watch, wearable devices The key to the difficulty in forming explosive power (such as smart watches) does not seem to lie in the system but in the killer application of the user's need for pain points. From this point of view, although Android Wear 2.0 has improved over previous generations of systems, it has not fundamentally solved the application problems that have impeded the outbreak of wearable devices.

Finally, given that the growth of Facebook users and advertising is mainly attributed to WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, it also explains why Google will release the IM software Allo and the video calling software Duo at this conference. This also makes us think more about Google+ launched earlier for Facebook Google. The number of Google+ users is now far below Faceook, and the industry uses more of “ghost towns” to describe Google+. So, in the case of social communications software such as WhatsApp and Messenger, Google’s release of Allo and video call software Duo is at best a gesture.

In summary, we believe that the Google I/O conference, in addition to the latest Android N, other releases including VR, smart home, wearable devices, etc. are more of a pose and frustration for Google, and What comes with it is the future variables.

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