So a year or so ago I took a look back at 2012 and tried to do my best for prognosticating the path of Android for 2013. You can read it with this link. And how'd I do?Well... let's see:
Key Lime Pie
I said that after 4.2 we'd see Android 5.0 and it'd be called Key Lime Pie. I was pretty off on that one. Next came 4.3 (still Jelly Bean) and then on to 4.4, Kitkat.
Now where I was right was saying that next named iteration ("K") would not come to to the Galaxy Nexus (at least officially).
OEM UI's
I prediected that the Sense, TouchWiz, et al... would come as an option to the end user. Buy a Samsung and 'opt out' of TouchWiz, but not have to root etc... That never happened. But we came close with the Google Edition devices (funny how they've kind of got a few different names: Nexus User Experience, Google Play Edition, etc...).
GoogleTV merging with Android proper
Google TV really just ... died this past year. There was that Sony GTV on a stick and that's about it. Many different devices that you can plug in to your TV, like OUYA, NVidia Shield, etc... Also, with the dominance of Chromecast, many thought that GTV would be gone entirely.
Although, with talk of a Nexus TV (whatever that might mean... whether it's a box or a TV itself) might make this happen in 2014. Android is meaning to take over the living room and Chromecast is living proof.
Galaxy S4 to be super hyped
Well of course it was. A lame launch (c'mon... dance sequences?), but still hyped. But nowhere near the hype that the Nexus 5 brought on.
I also called it on not having a flexible display. Although the Galaxy Round took that prize of being first flexible display.
Photospheres
Nailed it ... you can upload your spheres to Maps... well maps and Sphereshare.net.
Google's Cloud
Well, Drive got better, and the implementation of QuickOffice was rather nice, but still there's silos up between our Gmail / Bookmarks / Music / Books / Drive / Photos...
NFC
Now, there's a ton of accessories out there for NFC, but the main reason I see it working is Wallet. Unfortunately that hasn't really taken off. In fact, Google almost took a step backwards releasing a physical card.
In regards to the security, it's been interesting to see that with Kit Kat that the emulated secure element hasn't been more widely discussed.
More Google Services in Canada
Google Music
Sad to report that it hasn't happened. Although I have been getting closer to getting an answer.
Google Voice
Still nothing.
More Nexus devices
True... Google Editions, and devices like the Moto X which are so near to Nexus it's hardly discernable.
Google Wallet
Nothing on device yet... :(
I was really hoping that this was going to be the year that Google took notice of its Canadian fans and let us in on their good loving nature.
What I find interesting about my hopes and dreams for 2013 that I announced back then was my ending that Android doesn't become the next "Apple", an unmodest popularized platform. And while it's made huge growth, at the same time the user base we've noticed (mind you, probably a minority, but a very vocal minority) how they have become to behave in almost a similar mind to some of the same iUsers we joked about way back.
There's the "dude, do you even Android" user who likes to berate new users who want to ask questions. The 'entitled' who rant and rave about getting any update that they believe is 'owed to them' (even I'm guilty of that, at times). Let alone the rumour hungry hypebeasters... Anyways, let's hope for an awesome 2014. Stay tuned for my 2013 recap and 2014 predictions!
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