The Android invasion: Even to Wi-Fi enabled rice cookers!
From BloombergBusinessweek article Jan 8th, 2013
Google Android Baked Into Rice Cookers in Move Past Phone
By Cliff Edwards and Ian King on January 08, 2013
Google Inc. (GOOG)”s Android software, the most widely used smartphone operating system, is making the leap to rice cookers and refrigerators as manufacturers vie to dominate the market for gadgets controlled via the Internet.
Android-based products ranging from Royal Philips Electronics NV”s PicoPix pocket projector and LG Electronics Inc. (066570)” Smart Thinq refrigerators to Parrot SA (PARRO)”s Asteroid car stereo systems and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930)”s Galaxy Camera will be on display this week at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Extending its free operating system to new devices could let Google collect more data to build its lucrative search business and one-up software rivals Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Apple Inc. Android also is an easy to-use-platform that helps appliance makers like Samsung and Philips add product features and benefit from demand for Internet-connected devices — a market IDC predicts will reach more than $2 trillion in 2015.
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Intelligent Systems
Building Android directly into devices can make it easier for electronic equipment and appliances to exchange information with less human intervention. A television, for example, might show a pop-up message from a clothes dryer in the basement, indicating that the homeowner”s jeans are not yet dry. The user could press a button on the TV remote to automatically add 15 minutes to the dryer cycle. A connected rice cooker could determine what type of rice is being used and set cooking instructions accordingly.
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The market for so-called intelligent systems, or devices capable of receiving and transmitting over the Internet, will double to almost 4 billion units in 2015 from more than 1.8 billion units and more than $1 trillion in revenue in 2011, according to IDC. The market now is fragmented among more than 30 software makers, including QNX Software Systems Ltd. and companies” home-grown development efforts.
“The Android circle is getting bigger,” Android founder Andy Rubin said in May at a press conference. “Everything should be Androidified — is that the word?”
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