It’s turning into a bizarre world when your rice cooker is smarter than your laptop. And when your washing machine and dryer start telling you when you need an added spin cycle or extra 10 minutes drying time? That’s beyond strange. Yet this world is becoming a reality because of the Android operating system. A recent story by BusinessWeek highlighted the many strange places in which Google’s operating system Android is popping up. And the strangest news of all? Having Android inside your rice cooker might actually make sense.
Here comes Android
Google’s Android operating system has been a remarkable success story. Just look at how the system dominates the smartphone world. According to the BusinessWeek story, citing numbers from research company Gartner, Android in the third quarter of 2012 had grabbed 72 percent of the smartphone market share. That dominates its nearest rival, Apple, which could only claim 14 percent of this market over the same quarter.
Android in your rice cooker: Lunacy or savvy move?
That still, though, leaves open the big question: Why in the world would Google want its Android operating system inside your rice cooker, microwave oven or washing machine? The easy answer? The more places in which Android appears, the greater amount of customer data that Google can collect. And the more customer data that Google collects, the more it can tweak its already uber-powerful search engine. After all, Google still makes a ton of money from search. Anything that can help it refine and improve search, then, must be viewed as a key investment.
That’s one smart rice cooker
The second big question? Will it be useful to people to have Android in the refrigerator? The surprising answer is “yes”. Here’s an illustration provided by the BusinessWeek story: Say you’re watching your favorite TV show. And you also plan to head out later that night, and you’d prefer to wear your favorite jeans. As you’re watching TV, a message pops on your screen telling you that your jeans actually need 10 more minutes in your dryer downstairs. Then, rather than walking down the stairs to manually start your dryer, you simply press a button on your TV remote to get the dryer humming again. To paraphrase, Android inside your household appliances might be more useful than you’d think.