Google’s sixth annual developer’s conference, Google I/O, kicked off Wednesday morning with million of developers as well as users across the globe, hooked on to see the next leg of innovations from the stable of the search giant. Among other things, last year Google brought us, Android jelly bean and Google glass wearing skydivers, this years has been more targeted towards android app developers and providing tools and services to them.

Looking at evolutionary, not revolutionary announcements, in the past, Google has used I/O to announce major updates to its operating system and amazing game changing products. Instead of trying to top last year’s event, it seems Google has taken a more tempered approach by expanding or refining current products as a way for the future.

Android Game Service:The most anticipated rumor about conference was whether Google will announce official Android game center. But taking a more holistic approach with Google game service for android to make it easier for developers to have Cross platform syncing of game data with the help of Cloud save.

Google Developer Console:A vital update has been given to the developers console to give better analytics and help them monetize their application. With app translation service integrated directly into the console, it would help developers translate their applications more easily without any hassles. Usage metrics that was earlier available in google analytics would now be available in the Google developers console. There would also be revenue analytics to give a more customized statistics to developers about their revenue stream. With beta testing and staged roll out services developers would be able to customize the reach and feedback of their beta testers.

Google Music (All Access):To answer iTunes, Google introduced All access. The company portray a subscription service where user would be able to stream music on their devices and get recommendations based ob their usage.

APIs for Developers:Google also rolled out various new APIs for developers to help them create a more intuitive experience with their android applications. Google Maps Android API will let applications use google maps data into their applications. There would also be three new location based APIs.

Fused Location API:Taking advantage of all the sensors to give a more personalized experience. It will be more efficient, with an additional feature that uses less than 1% battery per hour.

Geo Fencing: It allows you to find virtual fences around your location. These trigger your location when you enter or exit these fences. With up to 100 Geo-fences simultaneously active per application , user would get more precise location.

Activity Recognition: It uses machine recognized data to automatically determine when the user is walking, cycling or driving. This would give a more holistic approach and give accurate data as per the requirement of the user.

Overall there are 52 google code labs that would be running across three days at the sixth editions of Google I/O.

Instant messaging services are dime a dozen and a range of applications have mushroomed across mobile OS giving cross platform compatibility. Taking cognizance of the fact that most of the smartphone thrive, on real time communication and on the go sharing of information. In that aspect, Apple, Google and Blackberry have put their proprietary communication architecture in place. Apple iMessage, Google’s upcoming Babel, and blackberry BBM have been a powerful force that have kept users to stick to their platforms.

” alt=”BBM messaging service” height=”180″ width=”610″ />

In the recent past there have been many rumors of blackberry opening up its messaging service to other platform as the company is recovering from sluggish past and a whole new operating platform. Now the rumor mills have taken the shape of actuality with Blackberry CEO, Thorsten Heims, announcing that they had plans to release its BBM messaging service to iOS and Android devices this summer.

Now many would argue the case that it would mean that the company is giving the loyal blackberry clients who were hooked on the the messaging platform a reason to switch, but in reality blackberry is just trying to portray a cross platform compatibility of its popular service.

According to BlackBerry CEO, this is an ideal time for BlackBerry Messaging to become a platform-independent messaging solution. Initially BBM on iOS would only feature basic capabilities like individual and group messaging, additional features including voice, screen sharing, video, and the newest feature, BBM Channels would roll out subsequently.

There are nearly 60 million monthly active users of blackberry making it a very popular messaging service. With blackberry coming out and adopting cross platform compatibility of its messaging application, there will be a stiff competition to other messaging applications which have been thriving on the same concept. But overall, BBM has a more robust architecture, making a superior messaging platform that the rest.

Apple devices would require iOS 6 or later, and BBM for iOS will be available as a free download in the iTunes store assuming assuming Apple approves the app.

Time and again Google has come out with innovative services and products which it mainly launches to the mainstream at its flagship event every year.The Google I/O is known to bring out the latest in technology from the stables of the search engine giant. This year, Google is slated to launch a new nexus 7 Tablet. This event is seen akin to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and is expected to unveil the next-generation of the Nexus 7 tablet.

Many analysts believe that this year, Google would be limiting its launches to services rather than emphasizing on devices. There is a lot of hype over the launch of its next generation messaging service, “Babel”. Moreover, there are also rumors that Google would be launching its next iteration of Android 5.0 named Key Lime pie. As far as devices are concerned there are expectations that Google will tighten the mini tablet market and take its offering to the next level with upgraded specs like a better camera, high-resolution screen and wireless charging.

The current version of Nexus 7 has been a huge hit for Google with its price point that hit a sweet spot for tablet lovers. It was released with rave reviews and helping give a huge boost to its maker Asus, which became the third-largest tablet manufacturer in the first quarter.

When Jellybean was launched there were a lot of expectations from it, and it stood to its hype with features like Google Now and Project Butter. Although there are no news about the features that would be coming to the next iteration of Android, rumors have been going around that Google would be changing the overall theme of android from from to white so as to give it a more universal aesthetic feel.

Google has been criticized a lot regarding its scattered services. Real time messaging is a huge hit among smartphone platform and other competitors already have a well palce service in play like iOS iMessage and Blackberry BBM. In order to counter that Google is putting forward “Babel” messaging service, which would unify all its communication modules across gmail, Google+, hangouts and Gtalk.

Google IO 2013 would be held at Moscone Center, San Francisco from May 15 to May 17, 2013. There would be many android application developers and technology enthusiast at the event to get first hand view of the next generation services and products from the search giant.