Google I/O 2013 Is All About Cleaning Up the Mess and Filling In the Gaps

Larry Page, Google co-founder and CEO, speaks during the opening keynote at the Google I/O developers' conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on May 15, 2013

Google’s I/O conference keynote was, in many ways, the opposite of what we expected.

Google did not announce any new hardware — no new Nexus 4 phone, upgraded Nexus 7 tablet or new Chromebook — nor did the company reveal a new version of Android. Wilder rumors about an “X Phone” from Motorola and an 11-in. (28 cm) tablet from Samsung did not materialize.

Instead, Google spent about half of its annual developers conference focusing on, well, developers, and the tools they need to make better apps. The rest of the time, Google spent announcing improvements to core Web services, such as Search, Maps and Google+. The biggest new product launch was arguably Google Play Music All Access, a competitor to subscription services like Spotify and Rdio.

In other words, Google was less interested in wowing the crowds with flashy hardware and software news, and more interested in making itself look good.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2013/05/15/google-io-2013-cleaning-up-the-mess-filling-in-the-gaps/#ixzz2TQz7JSz0