In the Google I/O company announced Brillo for the low power device such as smart light bulbs or security cameras which come with as little as 64MB or 32MB worth of RAM.
The Internet of Things in general has been of growing interest for all kinds of tech companies, with a number of players releasing their own connected devices and operating systems designed to allow all of these devices to speak to each other.
Many IoT devices, however, are very small and do not require a lot of processing power to properly run. While this means they are less expensive, it also means that operating systems have to be a bit lighter and less complex than traditional mobile operating systems like Android and iOS. For example, a toothbrush really only needs to be able to analyze how a person is brushing their teeth, as well as send and receive data.
Another reason why the new Brillo OS makes sense for Google is the fact that it owns NestLabs, the company that makes smart thermostats, smoke alarms and security cameras for the home, which are all at the end of the day, ‘smart’ home appliances. If most smart home devices run on the Brillo OS, this would give a gateway to Google to a large number of information about a user’s daily routine as the time they go to sleep, or use their oven as well.
Also, Brillo will probably be tucked into the Android brand, according to the report:
Google is likely to release the software under the Android brand, as the group developing the software is linked to the company’s Android unit. The lower memory requirements for devices running the new software would mark a sharp drop from the latest versions of Android, which are primarily aimed at mobile phones with at least 512 megabytes of memory.
