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The problem I see is Android is built to be an OS for many many use cases, and therefore will be a master of none.
The question I am pondering is which way the head unit market will go. Do people want an all in one device that does many things, or will turn by turn navigation continue to be the killer feature?
And let’s not forget just how hard turn by turn navigation has proven to be. Remember how shit it was even 5 years ago?
I kind of think turn by turn is a data problem, the hardware probably doesn’t matter.
kwdm-
The problem I see is Android is built to be an OS for many many use cases, and therefore will be a master of none.
Eh? It's an OS designed for small, battery driven, power hungry, multitasking touch enabled cellular devices. That's what it's good at. Android's customers seem to agree. Given Google are a bright bunch, I suspect they would have architected it so you can ditch the components you don't want for novel form factors where requirements vary, like say watches and bike computers.
There are problems associated with piggybacking off an existing platform but 'it does too much' typically isn't one of them. The problems are usually around not being able to tinker with / understand the various interfaces you get, for say Bluetooth or Ant+ - you get an interpretation of the spec that isn't your own and have to deal with their bugs and weirdness.
And let’s not forget just how hard turn by turn navigation has proven to be.
TBT isn't hard - it's coming up with a route that isn't stupid and meets the requirements of a cyclist that's hard. From what I've seen this thing tries to get around that not by being better at generating routes, but by allowing you to grab proven routes from the 'net on the fly and being able to modify them on device. This is the killer feature they are going for. My Fenix 3 can do everything else.
Howard
Why waste time building your own OS if you don't have to? By going to a higher level of abstraction on a stable platform that's already designed for battery intensive mobile shiz and touch interaction they can spend more time and effort on getting the ergonomics and UI right. #moreshitfixieskidderssay