People are silhouetted as they pose with laptops in front of a screen projected with a Google logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014.
People are silhouetted as they pose with laptops in front of a screen projected with a Google logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014. Reuters/Dado Ruvic

Google has announced that its 2015 I/O Developers Conference will be on May 28 and 29, likely triggering the avalanche of rumours on replacements for the Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Traditionally, Google uses the occasion to show off new and upcoming products and services. In the past few editions, devices like the smartphone Nexus 4 and 5 and their tablet counterparts, the Nexus 7 and 10, were first made public via the I/O stage prior to their commercial availability.

The gathering, which is Google’s biggest event each year per BGR, though is mostly for developers that provide applications for use on the tech giant’s various software platforms – Android, Chrome OS and the nascent Android Wear – so it would be safe to assume that there’ll be fresh revelations about the three products.

Next Android build

The follow up to Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is 5.1, is coming very soon, according to Android Geeks, pointing to the recent sighting of the supposed Moto G 2015 edition that runs on the upcoming Google mobile operating system. When the exact 5.1 rollout remains a question mark but the report is convinced that existing Nexus models save for the Nexus 6 and 9 will get the update in a matter of weeks

So with Android 5.1 set to become official likely in late February or early March, this year’s I/O version will possibly bring in fresh details for the successor as Google normally refreshes Android twice a year. The safe best is it would be 5.2 but with a different sweet label that remains within Google’s naming convention.

Going by last year’s event, Google may opt to share bits and pieces of the new Android to come but not its official name as the company did when Lollipop was previewed but elected to wrap it under the codename Android L. But 5.2 will not be a major jump from its immediate predecessor so Android fans cannot expect new features to the magnitude of Material Design.

2015 Nexus devices

And to showcase the power and new features that Google packed the upcoming Android, there must be devices that can best display the software’s amazing capabilities – in vanilla form. The chance is high that the tech giant will allow a glimpse of what the next Nexus smartphone and tablet would be.

Or at least, Google would drop solid clues that successors for the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 are already in the works. That should open the gateway for the speculations about the native Android devices to pour in, leading to their release dates likely in last quarter of 2015.