Google Takes the Wrapper off Android Lollipop

Later today, a 10-foot-tall statue of a lollipop will join sculptures of an ice cream sandwich, a chocolate doughnut, and other confections on the grass in front of Building 44 on Google’s (GOOG) campus in Mountain View, Calif. This is how the news will come of the latest major update to Android, which runs on 85 percent of the world’s smartphones: not with a hyped press conference or long lines outside gadget stores, but with the installation of an oversize lawn ornament.

Lollipop is the 13th major release of Android. But it’s the first to be fully developed under Sundar Pichai, the Google senior vice president and confidant of Chief Executive Officer Larry Page who took over the OS operation last year. Along with Lollipop, Pichai is introducing three Google-designed devices, including the supersize Nexus 6 smartphone, manufactured by Motorola Mobility (MMI) with a fairly gigantic 6-inch screen. (The iPhone 6 Plus display is 5.5 inches.) Pichai hopes the phone will be the first of a series of new Lollipop-powered computers in living rooms, cars, and just about everywhere else. “We aren’t only trying to ship two [products],” he says, obliquely referring to rival Apple’s (AAPL) well-received pair of new iPhones. “We are trying to enable thousands of [products] at the same time.”

Lollipop has arrived during an unusually important moment in Google’s attempt to control the next generation of computing devices. Samsung Electronics (005930:KS), Google’s largest partner, warned on Oct. 6 that it expects to miss its quarterly sales targets because of price cuts for its phones. In Europe, regulators are examining whether Google violates antitrust law by forcing manufacturers that use Android to preinstall its apps. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) has gotten rave reviews for iOS 8 as well as for its hot-selling iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. On Oct. 16, Apple will again convene the media to ooh and aah over new iPads. With the new version of Android, Google “has to overcome concerns that there is not parity between Android’s ecosystem and iOS,” says James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research (FORR).