Will Google "kill" Android to beat Apple?
Back a few years ago, before the most major pouring out of popularity for smartphones, there was AOSP. That's the Android Open Source Project – and it still exists today. With the latest developments in AOSP with regard to Google's next operating system development, Fuchsia, I wondered today: Will Google maintain Android?
Google makes some money with Android. They do this with advertisements and with the Google Play app store. They maintain a certification program through which manufacturers of smartphones gain access to Google Play and the rest of the Google-made apps for their devices.
Enter Fuchsia Alongside Android
Today, Mishaal Rahman from XDA Developers revealed a find he'd made this week. Fuchsia is an operating system Google is developing – an OS they've not spoken a lot about. Rahman's revelation and hypothesis here could be extremely important to the future of Android.
Fuchsia OS just showed up in AOSP, but most importantly, in the ART (Android Runtime) branch. Looks like they're building Fuchsia with ART...which would suggest native Android app support.https://t.co/2BzpvTxf9d pic.twitter.com/xZaktz1wcp
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) April 26, 2018
Fuchsia OS appeared in the ART (Android runtime) branch of AOSP. We've seen Fuchsia in action before. As JC said, Google doesn't need a third wheel. But the graphics and the live interactions we've had with Fuchsia so far suggest multiple possibilities. One of these is that Google uses Fuchsia as their own operating system – one not open sourced – one not as available as Android proper.
Imagine Google keeps some developers active in maintaining Android (AOSP)*, but others working on Fuchsia. Fuchsia may end up able to run Android apps natively at the same time as it makes Google's Pixel devices look, feel, and act unique in this all-iOS-and-Android mobile market.
*I said KILL in the title of this article because even WITH a maintained AOSP, the mere appearance that Google isn't giving Android its full attention might be deadly. That'll be one massive challenge if what I'm hypothesizing here is true.
Silicon
Instead of Google making Pixel devices with the same Android everyone else can get, they'd be making Pixel devices with their own OS, like Apple with iOS on the iPhone. If Google has their own devices with their own OS, they'll be able to work on silicon that'll make their devices even more unique, powerful, and able to shed some new rays of light on this currently fairly stagnant mobile device industry.