Android 5.0 gives us what we expect

Every year, always say something to sum up the expectations of the coming years. Internet analysts too many rounds of the author to sum up, the digital players too attached to the hardware, developers of the slot is too high so often reduced to internal jokes, so I think it is necessary to talk about Android.

Android's 2013 years have not been smooth, although it swept the emerging markets, but faced iOS7 and iphone5s confidence in the high-end market. In Japan, the share of Android continues to bleed and the Christmas spending season is completely suppressed. This year, the rumored big screen iphone is coming, the Android faction leader Samsung has encountered a growth bottleneck, Google's own Moto X is still a small crowd of toys. So at the May I/O Conference, Android 5.0 had to prove itself.

tock Strategy (one-year update framework, two-year upgrade process) by the hardware manufacturers widely accepted, in software and internet companies are rare. Google, however, actually implemented the strategy in the Android iterative process. In early 09, HTC G1 debut with Android. At the end of 10, Android 2.3 supported hardware such as high resolution and gyroscopes, NFC, and multiple cameras to optimize the SDK for game developers. Android 4.1, which was launched in the second half of 12, introduced Google Now and the butter program, with a leap of fluency and a voice-interactive approach.

Google every six months on the update of Android, but the hardware manufacturers are not retrace, often ignoring some of the unimportant version of the upgrade, users will also use the "brush machine" to vote. Compared with the current Android versions, Android 4.1 and 2.3 still have an absolute advantage, proving that the two versions play a pivotal role in the Android iteration process. So, Android's major update is about two years old. So 2014 years of Android 5.0 is worth looking forward to.

The outline of Android 5.0 starts with two sides. The system's personal style has been reduced after Rubin left the Android department. But these upgrades are not messy, and have already reflected Google's idea of Android. In addition, developers and user expectations for Google's upgrade roadmap has a decisive role. Android was catching up with iOS in the early years, but since Duarte came, Android has shown an independent design style, and the upgrade route has become more assertive and more based on its own philosophy to meet the needs of developers and users.

1 Personal Data Painless Migration: iphone user loyalty is high, on the one hand, because of its user experience more viscous, but often overlooked is that Android has not yet realized the transfer of personal data across terminals. Google chairman Eric Schmidt personally wrote a blog last month to teach users how to import contacts from the iphone to the Android phone. Google accounts can only save contacts, calendars and so on. The transfer of photos, music, and game progress requires cumbersome third-party software and even root privileges. Android's current MD5 signature validation rules cause a lot of data to be restored only on the same phone, and it is hoped that Android 5.0 will achieve painless migration between at least the flagship models within the AOSP project.

2. Independent tablet ecology: Last November, Google finally opened the tablet zone in the Play store and earlier added a tablet optimization to the SDK. The Nexus tablet is far behind the ipad. Duarte seems to be less comfortable with hardware than software, and whether Google should consider introducing a more powerful VP of hardware design. And not all developers have the energy to make independent tablet applications, mobile phone is still the main battlefield of mobile internet, even the Giants such as Tencent and Ali, you can see from the HD version of the application of their half-hearted. In the Android 5.0 SDK, if you can introduce automatic optimization of large screen devices, you can greatly reduce the burden on developers, such as increasing the image ratio, optimizing fonts, button adaptation.

3 optimize function key: Android's function key has not been able to find the perfect solution compared to the iphone classic home key design. From the four kings to the big three to the current virtual buttons, Android 4.4 natively supports immersion mode. The charm's own smart BAR,HTC tried a double button on one. But beyond Google itself, no one can drive the entire development community to optimize for a set of keystroke schemes. The homogenization of the current Android flagship hardware has created the conditions for solving this problem. Developers have suggested that Android develop two different key options for the 4.7-inch large-screen handset and 5-inch tablet phone.

4 Open Interface and unified style: Last May Miui was bombarded by developers because of its modification of Holo theme material library, so many third-party applications on MIUI look nondescript. For example, to allow the application to react with the orange tone of MIUI, change some of the lines in the Holo theme to orange. Most third-party applications are designed in the design process in accordance with native Holo theme colors-mainly blue and gray. Once these often-invoked footage and scripts are modified, the Android operation becomes unpredictable.

Running Dropbox and press on MIUI, glaring orange (Pictures from novadng)

As an open source operating system, openness is not a problem. To solve the problem of fragmentation, Google should provide more API permissions, so that third-party manufacturers to use the common API rather than modify the underlying code to achieve more functionality. Android 4.4 opens up the API permissions for SMS, allowing the setting of Third-party SMS applications as the default, and before implementing this functionality requires root to modify some of the underlying code.

It is hard for Google to expect everyone to follow the rules, as it does with its own ecological pretensions. Even if Google is willing to punish unruly vendors, Luo and his fans will still be plausible. Google may be able to try the "secondary rocket" model: strict CTS compatibility restrictions for mainstream manufacturers joining the ASOP program, ensuring that developers can do most of the fit with less effort. Others are more willing to toss the manufacturers themselves responsible for their own ecology.

5 64-bit processor and coprocessor chip: Moto X was androidcentral as the year's best Android in the end: "It's so well tuned that it's hard to detect." This is not a top-notch configuration, the more flat sales of mobile phones can be praised, thanks to the new interactive mode and customizable appearance. Like the iphone 5s, Moto X's built-in X8 coprocessor chip can drive sensors with very low power consumption, a "better mobile phone". In the 2014, "multi-structure" replaced "multicore" as a hardware development trend, richer sensors will be introduced. IPhone5S's 64-bit processor ethos will also force Android to support the arm V8 architecture.

6 take care of low-end machines: Android 4.4 's Slimming Program (Project svelte) is well known, and the program keeps the system fluent by restricting third-party applications to the background, allowing small memory models to be upgraded to the latest system. Offering the latest software upgrades to older handsets has been a consensus among Android manufacturers that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be upgraded to 4.4 systems, just like the upcoming S5, which has been a little more advanced than it used to be. With the end of the mobile hardware arms race, the gap between Android flagship and parity models is already small, and Android 5.0 is likely to cover most handsets.

6 will return to China: Four years ago Google withdrew from China in a scary way. Android has sprung up in China, but a full set of Google service frameworks has been removed in China. All kinds of UI, mobile phone assistant, application market Jinshan as king. Despite the fierce competition but constantly refreshing the line, Android became a little girl to dress up. Distribution channels by the giant monopoly, promotion of high costs. Large domestic companies will only transplant iOS work, inadvertently participate in international competition. Small and medium-sized developers original difficult, had to compete to copy. Google's withdrawal was not a descendant of the comments, but android in China's disorderly competition is undoubtedly a double loser outcome.

7 Wearable equipment: CES lets us see that wearable equipment is going to explode. While Google Eyewear is still the most compelling device, it is more important for Google to improve Android's compatibility with Third-party devices. To NFC, for example, Google began to vigorously promote this standard from Nexus S, has yet to get the dominant position, but Apple has just launched the ibeacon quickly won the favor of developers, the momentum from behind. Android 5.0 takes into account the trend of intelligent life over the next two years, incorporating more diverse hardware and better standards into the ecology.

To sum up, Android is not only to make up for the lessons of the past, but also ahead of the next wave of hardware innovation to prepare for the trend, and to fill the business model of the short board. It is impossible to solve these problems once on Android 5.0. From 4.1 to 4.4, Google's mood shows its sincerity to solve these problems. But it's not enough to just work, sometimes it takes a lot of courage to get a foot in the face. For example, to return to China, the inevitable need to make a compromise, in the Soviet Union of Brin, can overcome their demons?