By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
It's Google's big announcement day today and we expect a lot of products and innovations to be unveiled. A year ago, we saw the launch of the Pixel phones, Google Home, Google WiFi, Daydream VR headsets and the Google Assistant. It took a while, but Canada now has all these devices and services and feature parity with their US counterparts. What do we expect Google to unveil in today's launch event?
This year we expect some diversification. The focus of today's launch are the Pixel Phones. Aside from the usual refinement in specs and technologies, there should be huge news in the camera department both in terms of hardware as well as software. The original Pixel remains one of the best cameras on a smartphone in the market and the successors are expected to be excellent. As far as Pure Android devices go, Google has an opportunity to differentiate itself with the second generation Pixels which we expect to be targeting high end Samsungs and the new iPhones.
Google Home is the only smart assistant/smart home controller that makes sense for Canadians right now. Not only is it the only one supported in the country (in English and French, no less), the device was engineered and its software was developed in Waterloo, Canada by a Canadian team. Google Home mini is almost inevitable as a new device in a lower price-point to help drive adoption. Some new smart features area also expected to go along with the new smart speakers.
There hasn't been much news from Google on the Chromebook front but a new premium 2-in-1 device should get Chromebook fans excited, specially now that the Chrome OS can somewhat interoperate with Android and run some Android apps natively.
We'll know more later today as Google kicks off its announcement at 12 noon Eastern. Stay tuned for more developments and some hands on reports from the satellite event.