An announcement on the Android Developers blog sounds the death knell for Android Things in most of the areas considered mainstream IoT.
Dave Smith, Developer Advocate of IoT states:
Over the past year, Google has worked closely with partners to create consumer products powered by Android Things with the Google Assistant built-in. Given the successes we have seen with our partners in smart speakers and smart displays, we are refocusing Android Things as a platform for OEM partners to build devices in those categories moving forward. Therefore, support for production System on Modules (SoMs) based on NXP, Qualcomm, and MediaTek hardware will not be made available through the public developer platform at this time.
Android Things continues to be a platform for experimenting with and building smart, connected devices using the Android Things SDK on top of popular hardware like the NXP i.MX7D and Raspberry Pi 3B. System images for these boards will remain available through the Android Things console where developers can create new builds and push app updates for up to 100 devices for non-commercial use.
According to Harry Fairhead, in his analysis Android Things Is Now Less Of A Thing
Android Things could have been a great success because the idea is a good one. Take the Android operating system, with all its UI and other facilities, and give the programmer some extras that allow interaction with sensors and effectors. The problem is that the perceived needs of security made using it very difficult to use it to build anything innovative. The security crippled the hardware.
