The Android Renaissance….What is it?

So AndroidPolice is reporting the Jean-Baptiste Queru (JBQ), the former technical lead for AOSP is going to Yahoo. Now I think this is great for JBQ and good luck to him on his future endeavors.

However, I know many have wondered is Android is in trouble with all these major players leaving, and I think we are on the verge of what happened in the Fall of 2011 with the release of ICS. A “Android Renaissance”. I think the old Android guard was there for a purpose. To get Android to a point that performance and usability issues was no longer plagued the OS. For the most part I think they are there.

I think the new guard under the leadership of Sundar is designed to fine tune the OS, and actually make Android as enjoyable as it is functional. The design language was the first part of that puzzle with Matias Duarte at laser focused. In my opinion features like more integration with Chrome, better messaging, and bettering the TV space is what Android users are missing. When compare to things like iOS or even Windows Phone through the XBox

The Elusive TV Space

The Big one here is the TV space. No one has figured it out yet. Google TV is essentially an Android Users Apple TV, which could be huge, with just a few little tweaks. They are already integrating TV into Google Now, so the pieces just need to come together. I have a Google TV and even with its quirks it is a promising product, regardless of what Nilay says. It just needs work. In my opinion doing the following will put life back into the platform…

Update the OS to 4.2.2 or 4.3 – This would solve a ton of performance issues, as HC 3.2 kind of sucked. Gogle TV’s OS is going on 3 years old and is in need of a major update
Expand the developer platform and toolkit to the TV. Currently Google TV is a platform which can access the Play Store. However, because the devloper toolkit for GTV is non existent and outdated, no one can make a decent looking app. This reminds me of the pre ICS days.
Embed Chromecast and Miracast functionality into Google TV – This is a given, and will happen at least for Chromecast. The one thing many Android users envy with iOS users is AirPlay. Chromecast is close but still not 100%. I think Making the Google TV a Chromcast and Miracast player would be major.
Release a Nexus Google TV Box – maybe with Sony. We all know Nexus devices work the best for the most part. I think Google should team up with one of their premier players..like Sony and just make a Nexus GTV device. I would Call it Nexus TV.

Yes you might think Google TV is dead, but I doubt it. No one, not even Apple has figured out the TV space. So no reason giving up now. Just like how Google came back and redefined itself in the tablet space with the Nexus 7, I imagine they could do the same thing with the TV. With a new leader at the helm, this might be the time for that change.

I think software and hardware comes in seasons and sometimes you need new blood to foster new ideas, I am actually excited to see where Android goes from here with the new guys leading the pack.