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Google announces new hardware and “Actions on Google” platform

Welcome to DeveloperEconomics’ weekly news roundup. In this edition Google announces new hardware and “Actions on Google” platform, Apple and Deloitte team-up for enterprise solutions and HTC’s Viveport VR app store goes live globally. Read on for the full news rundown.

Google announces new hardware and “Actions on Google” platform

Google has launched two new premium smartphones using the Pixel brand, a Daydream VR headset, a new WiFi router, and a 4k Chromecast. They have also announced dates and pricing for the previously announced Google Home speaker. On top of this, December will see the availability of a new ‘Actions on Google’ platform for developers to add to Google’s new Assistant in Allo, Google Home and exclusively on Pixel phones.

Google combines services under ‘Cloud’ brand

Google has created a new umbrella brand for its cloud services. Google for Work – Google’s Cloud Platform – and Google Apps for Work – which itself is being rebranded as GSuite – all now fall under the newly created Google Cloud brand. Google said its decision to rebrand underscores its seriousness about enterprise services.

Android Wear 2.0 delayed until 2017

The release of Android Wear 2.0 will be delayed until 2017, Google has announced. The release, originally scheduled for this autumn, was pushed back to allow Google to collect more feedback and fine tune the software. Google has instead released the third developer preview of the OS, which includes Google Play on Android Wear.

Genymobile announces cloud-based Android platform

Genymobile has announced a new cloud platform to help enterprises build and test Android applications. Genymotion Cloud features support for Jenkins and Bamboo, along with support for testing frameworks such as Robotium, Appium, Expresso and Calabash. The platform also features virtual device sharing, live demos and app sharing for cross-company collaboration.

HTC’s Viveport VR store goes global

HTC has launched its official store for the Vive VR headset. Viveport is launching in 30 countries, with around 60 titles covering categories such as education, design, art, social, video, music , sports and health. The store is currently highlighting content from the likes of Everest VR, The Blu, Google Spotlight Stores and Stonehenge VR.

Occipital launches $500 VR dev kit for smartphones

Start-up Occipital has released a dev kit that offers room-scale motion tracking for iOS and Android phones. The $500 kit uses Occipital’s Structure sensor, which has already been used on smartphones to create 3D meshes of environments. The kit includes a Structure Sensor, custom faceplate, phone case and 120-degree wide vision lens.

Codenvy partners with Bitnami for “one click” cloud stacks

Codenvy and Bitnami have teamed-up to offer “one-click” programming stacks for common frameworks. The stacks integrate the Che cloud IDE and workplace server with Bitnami stacks, allowing devs to intantly access Dockerized workspaces, removing the need to set-up and configure IDEs and frameworks before writing code. Frameworks supported include Express, Swift, Play and Rails.

Waratek enhances Java app security with RASP

Waratek has released a new version of its AppSecurity platform for Java apps. The release lets developers modernise the security capabilities of older Java apps with a RASP plug-in that the eliminates the need to replace existing Java Runtime Environments. Waratek adds that its virtualisation-based architecture avoids the performance penalties associated with other RASP products.

Oracle loses appeal against Google in Java battle

Oracle has lost its appeal against Google, in the long-running legal battle over whether Android infringes on Java copyrights. This latest appeal concerns whether Google failed to disclose its intent to develop tools to run Android on the desktop using the Android App Runtime for Chrome. A District Court Judge denied the motion, saying it had “no consequence with the defined scope of our trials.”

Apple and Deloitte announce iOS partnership

Apple has teamed-up with Deloitte to help companies get to grips with the enterprise features of iOS. The partnership involves a “first-of-its-kind” Apple practice with over 5,000 strategic advisors, who are focused on helping business take advantage of the iOS ecosystem. The deal will also see Deloitte offer native app development services for ERP, CRM and HR departments.

Skymind raises $3m for Java deep-learning library

Skymind, which offers an open-source deep-learning library for Java, has raised $3 million from investors such as Tencent, SV Angel and Mandra Capital. The start-up aims to build a library that lets Java developers work on AI deep learning. Skymind says its libraries have been downloaded 22 thousand times just in the last month.

The 3 key Apple Watch features that nobody talks about. Yet.

[If Apple wants to create a new, large product category out of smart watches, they need to create mass-market demand for their new product. What are the 3 most important features that will define the future of the Apple Watch? The ones that enable developers to innovate on top of these devices and create demand for smart watches.]

“We believe this product will redefine what people expect from its category. … It is the next chapter in Apple’s story.” With these words, Tim Cook made it very clear that the Apple Watch is more than just an excellent product. As with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad before it, the Apple Watch aims to shape the future of wearables and create a whole new market reality.

As it stands, the Apple Watch v1 is a nicely designed timepiece, an engineering wonder, but competition will be fierce. Since fashion is about self-expression, by definition, there will be no single winner.

If Apple wants to create something bigger than fashion accessories, the Watch needs to be a functional tool. If it’s a tool, [tweetable]Apple must answer a fundamental question: what is a smart watch for?[/tweetable]

https://twitter.com/brianshall/status/509405381857013760
https://twitter.com/BenedictEvans/status/509431691207659520

Will notifications become the killer app for smart watches? Unlikely. Not only is it unclear that we really want more interruptions, but it’s a bit of a dead-end for innovation. There can only be so many improvements in notifications, and only so many companies making those improvements.

If Apple wants to create a new, large product category out of smart watches, they need to become something much more that a timepiece with notifications and sensors. Something that allows people to do things that were not possible before. How Apple can do this? By following the same path that worked so well for iPhone and iPad: Tap into the limitless innovation power of co-creators to discover new use cases and possibilities we cannot imagine today.

The most important features of the Apple Watch going forward are the ones that enable developers to innovate on top of these devices and create demand for Apple’s smart watches. What are these features?

WatchKit

The straightforward way to expand the functionality of the watch is the WatchKit SDK, which allows developers to create “watch apps”. Other smart watch players like Android Wear, Pebble and Razer have made similar capabilities for developers. Developers are already showing strong interest in smartwatches. For example, the developer program of Pebble boasts 20,000+ developers and thousands of apps,.

HealthKit

The Apple Watch has a strong emphasis on embedded sensors for fitness and wellness. On the launch event, the company dedicated an entire section on it. Tim Cook: “This is a very important area for me and a very important area for Apple.”

But a few sensors and apps do not make a platform. The real potential lies in the HealthKit SDK that Apple launched at its WWDC event earlier this year. While its not technically a feature of the watch itself, it is this SDK that can take the device’s functionality and expand it in a whole new way to monitor activity and other wellness data . Could it be that the category that Apple wants to redefine is not the watch, but wellness and healthcare (in the broadest sense of the word)?

Certainly several other companies seem to go after that opportunity. Among them Google (Google Fit), Validic, Samsung (SAMI), Human API and most recently Jawbone (Jawbone UP API).

Identity

Like the Nymi wristband, the Apple Watch has all the technology in it to identify you personally. Apple has already demonstrated how digital identity combined with the Apple Watch can be used to make payments or even open hotel doors. (The clever integration with the new Apple Pay can drive adoption for both.) However, the possibilities are much broader. Biometric identification can be the end of not only passwords, but other kinds of ID as well. Another product category for Apple to redefine and absorb into its iOS universe?

Digital identity is a key control point for many digital leaders, including the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Salesforce. They are all actively working to hold your identity information and build your online persona on their platform. For Apple, the importance of identity is also evident in their deepening integration between devices and in their introduction of fingerprint sensors in all new phones.

Users first

What is a smart watch useful for? Beyond fashion and self-expression, a new kind of health monitoring and identity are prime candidates for the title of killer use case. Apple is going at it with their proven recipe for launching digital ecosystems: users-first. Apple starts by releasing a well-designed device for hardcore fans with a lot of value built in by default. Once there is a critical mass of users, Apple connects them with developers, who create real mass-market demand for the product.

It will take the ingenuity of a community of developers to explore all the possibilities and create a category killer, and Apple knows it very well.