After some 17 months of testing in various shapes and forms, Android Things has finally been released. The 1.0 version of Android for IoT (Internet of Things) devices, brings all the benefits of Android but in a streamlined, power friendly package. Developers of Android should find Android Things familiar straight away.
The beauty of Things is that you have access to all the APIs, development tools and resources that are already used in Android development and can use them to develop hardware solutions on certified Android Things hardware for use in IoT projects.
Along with the release of Things 1.0, four System-on-Modules (SoMs) based on the NXP i.MX8M, Qualcomm SDA212, Qualcomm SDA624, and MediaTek MT8516 hardware platforms were also announced with support for the platform. By using one of the supported platforms, OTA updates for firmware and base Android updates will happen automatically so developers can focus on the task of building their solutions.
In the testing of Things throughout the course of its beta life, over 100,000 SDKs were downloaded by developers for testing and working on pre-release solutions. It shows that developers are keen to sort out IoT solutions and Android Things could be the catalyst that makes it much easier to do.
