The Internet of Things landgrab is currently going though a software phase, is seems, with Google the latest company to see the need for a dedicated IoT OS, according to a report by The Information.

One of the key features of IoT is that the technology needs to have a very small footprint if it’s to run on tiny, embedded devices and require minimal maintenance. While current mobile OSs such as Android and iOS require significantly less computing resource than, for example, Windows for desktop, they’re still too substantial for many IoT implementations.

For this reason, in this month alone, we have seen SAP, Samsung and Huawei launch dedicated IoT platforms as they seek to steal a march on their rivals in what is expected to be one of the major tech industry paradigms of the next decade.

Google makes its money through ubiquity and must be worried about relinquishing the mobile device control it has established with Android as people increasingly use wearables and countless other things to access the internet.

The report reckons Google has codenamed its IoT OS ‘Brillo’ for some reason, but that it will have the Android brand when it’s released. A formal announcement is expected at the Google I/O developer conference next week.