Google’s I/O 2011 developer conference has seen the company talking about its Android mobile platform.
It says there are now 100 million activated Android devices around the world, with 400,000 new Android devices activated every day. The Android Market has seen 4.5 billion downloads and currently has 200,000 free and paid applications available.
The company is introducing a new version of the Android ‘Honeycomb’ platform for tablets - Android 3.1 - and has also been talking about the forthcoming ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ OS version, which is expected to arrive later this year.
Android v3.1 has a smoother user interface than the current version and adds connectivity for USB accessories, including keyboards, mice, game controllers and digital cameras. Ice Cream Sandwich - probably v4.0 - will offer the ‘holographic’ tablet interface on smartphones, along with video face recognition and more NFC functionality.