Google targets IoT software – and maybe more with new OS

Things are looking Fuchsia for Google these days. Fuchsia – a vivid, purplish red color – is the name of the newly announced operating system that Google is planning to develop as an open source project.

Typically tight-lipped Google, hasn’t revealed its intentions for Fuchsia just yet. Some tech pundits are already predicting that the new Fuchsia OS is designed for lightweight IoT devices and sensors. However, Fuchsia is also being designed with the ability to scale from small IoT devices to full-fledged computers, laptops, tablets or mobile devices.

Perhaps the search giant is pursuing Fuchsia’s development due to the ongoing legal headaches and expense of litigating Android. While early this summer, Google eventually won a lawsuit brought by Oracle concerning Android’s use of Java, the lawsuit was lengthy and expensive. Oracle has already indicted it plans to appeal the jury’s verdict, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison is not a tech entrepreneur known for giving up easily on competition or legal battles.

A new OS for Google

“It could be an IoT operating system, as some outlets predict – there’s precedent, for instance Samsung repurposed its Tizen mobile operating system to work both on its connected appliances and smart watches,” said Francesco Radicati, senior analyst, Ovum. “Given the different form factors for connected devices, running a full OS designed to work with a touchscreen is probably resource-intensive, so an OS built from the ground up for IoT would likely be more battery-efficient.”

The new Fuchsia OS is built atop LittleKernel, an open-source, OS designed for embedded systems. Two of the Google engineers and team members working on Fuchsia are known for their previous mobile/embedded OS work. Travis Geiselbrecht, worked at Jawbone, Palm, Apple, and Danger, and Brian Swetland, worked on BeOS, Android, and Danger/HiptopOs.

“The other possibility is that Google’s looking at recreating its entire ecosystem from the ground up to work across all devices, which would include the ability to work across IoT devices as well as traditional devices,” Radicati said.