Project Brillo, Google?s latest attempt to unify the disparate technologies of the Internet of Things, has a stronger chance of gaining acceptance than its quietly abandoned predecessor Android@Home did, by providing both interconnectivity and the base for developing apps across devices.

The operating system unveiled at Google?s I/O developer conference yesterday is essentially a slimmed-down Android spinoff that can work with the widely used Google-developed mobile OS to operate everyday objects such as appliances and baby cameras. The unveiling points to Brillo?s potential to permit integration for developers working with mobile and wearable apps, for example, while providing immediate scalability across devices.

?Brillo complements, not replaces Android,? said Raul Castanon-Martinez, senior analyst for enterprise mobility infrastructure and services with 451 Research. 

?Though not as flashy as talking about new exciting wearables, this is a key milestone for Google in many ways and specifically for IoT. Google will leverage their existing footprint and expand in a seamless way into IoT,? he said.  

An important element is the integration with Google Now for voice recognition using natural language understanding, as well as gestures. 

?This means users will be able to control devices that are connected to their mobile phones using the capabilities of the mobile phone such as microphone,? Mr. Castanon-Martinez said.

Other analysts doubted that Brillo would eventually replace Android.

?Putting the Internet into phones has led the march to mobile?s dominance in the way people connect to the internet at least in the U.S.,? said Ken Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax. ?Android is the dominant OS in smartphones, and it would be a mistake to talk about replacing it with anything.  

?So from a simple marketing and branding perspective, I couldn?t see anything replacing Android in the short term, but when we talk about the Internet of things we are talking long-term and could be talking about a future where the Internet is in everything you can imagine and also some things you can?t,? he said. 

While Project Brillo may have been the most exciting product technology unveiled at Google I/O,  an annual conference and major innovation launching pad held in San Francisco, CA, other highlights included the launch of Android Pay, an open-platform NFC mobile payment system to rival Apple Pay, the release of Google?s new Android M mobile operating system, and a new Google Photos app that syncs photos from all devices and backs them up automatically in Drive.

The two-day event opened with a keynote address from Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president overseeing Android, Chrome and Google Apps. 

The question that Google is asking with Brillo and Weave, the common language Google is developing between devices, is: How can the objects that people interact with be improved by being connected to and have an understanding of every other object? 

?The full potential of mobile connectivity on Android enabled devices hasn?t been realized and people just barely understand the possibilities of Android devices when paired with IOT-enabled items,? Mr. Wisnefski said. ?The learning curve puts any displacement of Android way off into the future.?

Brillo will definitely change the way Android is developed, but people are still going to want a device with an operating system such as Android capable of breaking down high-level data in a way they can understand.

Brillo is seen as having the best opportunity to standardize devices on the Internet of Things.

?I think Google has the best shot of anyone,? Mr. Wisnefski said. ?They have the most control over the current IoT infrastructure with things like NEST. They are the pioneers and also the lead developer of the technology.?

Android announced Android@Home at Google I/O 2012. After that, relatively little was said about the project. 

?I suspect that project Brillo is the realization of the things learned since that time,? Mr. Wisnefski said. ?For one, Android was not really designed to work on such low powered devices as whatever you would imagine that a door knob should in fact have.  

?That barrier is what has led to this pairing down or scrubbing of features that will enable Brillo to connect all of those items,? he said. ?That?s the main difference I see.?