Google IO 2011

I was invited to attend Google IO by friend and business associate Steve Jacobs from Apps4android.  Steve is engaged with Google on a mission to make Android phones and tablets more accessible to the blind and other visually challenged individuals.  Steve and his team do some excellent work and his collaboration with the Google accessibility team has payed dividends for the visually challenged all over the world.  Steve has also worked with us in the same vein, to enable the Androiter application to be fully accessible.  We demonstrated the system at his pod on the 3rd floor of the Moscone Center last week.  We demonstrated the system hundreds of times over the two days of the event and had rave reviews. 

Google IO was really a terrific event.  Exciting keynotes on both day 1 and day2, exceptional sessions, a diverse and energetic group of 5000 developers, parties, food, all contributed to a significant buzz and quite a bit of fun.  From a mobile health perspective, there were several significant takeaways.

·         Google announced that over 100 Million Android phones have been activated.  I don't need to wax philosophic about that level of success in just 2 and 1/2 years.  It speaks for itself.  100,000,000  wow.

·         Equally staggering, there are 400,000 activations of new Android devices every day!

·         There are 36 OEM's producing phones and tablets globally

·         There are 215 Carriers selling Android phones

·         There are 450,000 registered app developers

·         There are over 200,000 apps available in the Market

·         There are 1 billion apps downloaded every 60 days at the current pace

·         There have been 4.5 Billion downloads as of last week

LifeSignals made a conscious choice to use the Android platform to develop our mobile health and wellness applications.  It appears to have been a good choice. 

Thanks to Steve Jacobs and Google for such a fun and informative event.  Also thanks to Google, Samsung and Verizon for the free 10.1" Galaxy Tab and 4G hotspot.   The new tablet is sleek and gorgeous and makes a great platform for our applications.