A product pitch built around Android O needs more than a list of features. Google’s March 21, 2017 developer-preview announcement described conditions that differ between multitasking, imaging and nearby connectivity. Our proposed feasibility matrix separates app work, system support and hardware requirements. It is editorial synthesis for evaluating a concept, not Google’s product-planning instructions. Phandroid reported that Google planned four previews, with the next expected in May. Add a preview-stage entry to each prerequisite row and use that expected checkpoint to revisit the concept’s conditions. A date for reassessment is not evidence of shipping hardware or customer availability, and does not remove the display, manifest or image-profile requirements. [android-o][phandroid-o-preview]

Start with picture-in-picture. Google extended it to phones and tablets, with apps able to enter the mode from a resumed or pausing state where the system supported it. Apps could set an aspect ratio and custom interactions. This row concerns app implementation and system support; labeling it simply a hardware gate would obscure the actual conditions. [android-o]

The imaging row has a different dependency chain. Google required a wide-gamut-capable display, a manifest flag for the activity and bitmaps containing an embedded wide-color profile. Record each prerequisite separately. An imaging concept should not be marked feasible merely because the operating system has a color feature while the proposed display or image assets remain unspecified. [android-o]

For Wi-Fi Aware, Google described discovery and communication between nearby devices without an Internet access point, conditional on appropriate hardware. Its work with hardware partners was prospective. The matrix should leave hardware availability unresolved where evidence is missing. These distinctions can frame a prototype decision, but the announcement supplies neither an installed customer base nor sales estimates for a new entrant. [android-o]

Source documents

  1. O-MG, the Developer Preview of Android O is here!https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/03/first-preview-of-android-o.html
  2. Android O Developer Preview arrives with a ton of featureshttps://phandroid.com/2017/03/21/android-o-official-preview-features/