Google I/O 2015 just happened and everybody who attended, whether that be a developer or press, seemed to have a great time. This is Google’s biggest developer conference of the year and it is here that people can learn everything that Google is currently working on. Google also covers what the company hopes to accomplish in the near and far future. So, if you don’t already know, just about anybody who is fond of Android and/or Google will do just about anything to get a golden ticket to the event.
As it turns out though, not everybody who attends Google I/O looks at what Google is working on in a positive light. According to the Financial Times, two former Google executives are surprisingly two such people. The Financial times says that these two former Googlers gave them their opinion on the current state of Android and that it wasn’t exactly positive. Here is what one of the two said, “The thought leadership is maybe absent, compared to where is was in the past.” The other former Googler had this to say, “What I saw was Android playing out, Android getting into the mature phase.” These things were said by the two after Google I/O’s main keynote where one of the key talking points was the next iteration of Android, Android M. But, if you take a second to take a look at where Android currently sits, they have reason to be a bit negative on the subject.
Ever since the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple has been slowly but surely stealing away Android’s market share. This can become dangerous as a key appeal point with Android is the fact that it is the most widely used OS in the world. If Apple keeps chipping away at that fact then Android as a platform could begin to feel an impact. If you take a look at the chart included below you can clearly see the effect of Apple taking Android’s market share.
While these two ex-Googlers weren’t necessarily positive or negative when it comes to Android’s current state, depending on how you look at it, they did seem concerned with what they had to say. Android is doing great as a platform, but its growth has slowly begun to slow down. On top of this, it seemed like the two ex-Googlers weren’t too fond of Google making the next iteration of Android a smaller update with no big changes. But, they of all people should know that sometimes that’s a lot better and more needed than an update with huge changes.
