Google is currently focusing on designing Android in a direction to better suit smartphones and tablet PCs, the products that enjoy high volume shipments, but since Android is open source software, many hardware players are also trying to modify the operating system to fit other devices such as e-book readers, smart watches and indoor cordless phones.

Most of these non-smartphone and non-tablet PC applications can be broadly identified as non-certified Android hardware and since Google is neither supporting nor rejecting these devices, Digitimes Research believes that these products can be separated into three different categories with each category having a different outcome in the future.

The first category is for devices that will continue to develop into minority and niche markets, and even though these devices will still have demand, their growth will be limited and will not be able to attract Google's attention and become mainstream market.

The second category is for devices that will eventually be integrated and disappear. Since consumer electronics are gradually trending towards unified functions, hardware such as digital music players and pocket TVs may have difficulty escaping the fate of being merged into other devices.

The third category is for devices such as smart TVs and smart watches that have strong potential in the future and could receive attention from Google like tablet PCs. With Google's assistance to add and modify functions that are specially designed for these devices, in future Android releases, these device could enjoy increasing demand as well as support in the future. 

Source:digitimes