Google I/O – Full Circle

Gaming will put Google out front in the Digital Life race.

• Google is holding its annual developer event this week from Wednesday May 15^th to Friday May 17^th.
• The focus will be on the developers and tools rather than new hardware, updates and features for the Android and Chrome OSs.
• However there are a few features and updates that I think will be highly relevant to the outlook for the Google ecosystem.

Gaming

• First and foremost is the launch of a game center, xBox Live lookalike that will facilitate multiplayer gaming as well as game rankings and achievements on Android.
• I view this is as the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle because when I look at Digital Life, gaming is the one piece that Google does not have covered.
• With addition of gaming, Google will have 100% of the Digital Life pie covered meaning that it will be able to collect data on all aspects of its users increasing the value of advertising that it can sell.
• Furthermore, gaming is a crucial piece of Digital Life as users are still spending around 32% of all their time on a smartphone playing games.
• Gaming is bigger than social networking (24% of time spent) and hence represents a significant data collection opportunity that Google must address.
• Having 100% of Digital Life covered puts Google way out front of its competitors with Microsoft in second place with 76% of Digital Life covered.

Google Glass

• I am also expecting a lot of noise around Google Glass.
• The one thing that this wearable technology experiment needs is innovative applications.
• As it exists today Google Glass is a clunky looking, slightly clumsy to use piece of technology that is too expensive for mass market appeal.
• It feels exactly like smartphones did right before the iPhone showed everyone how cool and wonderful the proposition could be.
• It is easy to scoff at wearable technology and Google Glass because no one has figured out how it can be both very useful and serious fun.
• What it needs are innovations that take Google Glass and make it a must have for the mass market.
• These could easily be third party killer applications that bring Google Glass alive.
• Google is doing exactly the right thing by encouraging the developer community to write the software to push Google Glass from a geeky toy into a revolutionary innovation.
• New Nexus tablets and upgrades to Android are frankly incidental events when it comes to strategies for Google to strengthen its grip on the Internet.