This year Google IO, the annual conference for developers, will take place over three days from 27 to 29 June 2012 in San Francisco. The conference, often days after Apple’s own WWDC event, is Google’s opportunity to present and discuss applications for the company’s web browser and open Internet technologies, as well as presenting new products in all things Google.

As Google grows in influence with developers, thanks to Chrome and Android, their I/O conference has also grown in interest. In 2011 tickets were gone quickly, and this year sales have broken all records, as the event sold out in 20 minutes.   So what we expect to see at this event?

Jelly Bean

No doubt that the expectations of the Android and beyond are set in this highly anticipated event each year. The most striking, clearly, is the release of Android 5.0 Jelly Bean, which many claim will arise in this event. The latest rumors and the leaked picture of a Nexus phone in Google Play Store hint at a Jelly Bean update in the coming weeks.

Google Cloud

Various sources including GigaOm are reporting that Google is very likely to launch a cloud services platform of its own.

The cloud service will likely to compete with the popular Amazon EC2 cloud and Microsoft Azure.  Microsoft recently got a cloud boost after the inclusion of Linux OS in their cloud deployment offerings.  It would be a welcomed extension to Google’s recently launched cloud service, Google Drive, which is set to take over Google Docs in the coming weeks.

Android Stats

Like Apple, Google does not want to miss the opportunity to talk about the numbers behind their successful Android platform. It is quite natural to expect that there will be a hefty portion of the event dedicated to this subject – a review of Android smartphones, the number of daily activations, the rise of the Android ecosystem, etc.

Chrome OS

I hope you haven’t forgotten about Chrome.  The operating system, which Google aims at becoming a competitor of Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X, is not yet enjoying great success.

However, it has not disappeared and Google continues to work on Chromebook devices including the latest Samsung Chrome OS Chromebook. Most likely, the company will return to discuss how best to use it in the next few years.

Nexus Tablet

Google I/O could be the event where the company announces the upcoming launch of the first Nexus Tablet. A few days ago rumor spread that Google would launch several models of its equipment, which would be manufactured by different companies.  If so, Google would’ve adopted a totally different strategy for the Nexus tablet, which certainly has its point of relevance for the future of the Android tablet environment.

Community developers for Android Market

One of the key elements for the success of Android is its ability to attract developers, and as consumers continue to seek out consumer access through mobile applications, Android remains a dominant point of entry for developers.

So a lot of time at the event will take the discussion of future applications, Google APIs and the Android market as a whole.  Google is competing with Apple and Microsoft for ownership of the entire mobile stack, and that incorporates quite an ecosystem for software, hardware and accompanying services.

Google+

In addition to search engines and other online services, Google+ is becoming extremely important for Google as the company looks to centralize its efforts and layer in more social interactions to its core products.

During the event, the company will likely discuss the latest developments for their social networking experiment, and the applications to communicate within Google+.  As Facebook expands to mobile and seeks out more localized data for search incorporation, Google is battling on the social front as well.

Google’s Siri

Google has accelerated the development of a Siri competitor for the Android platform. According to Wall Street Journal, Google is developing a similar assistant codenamed Majel, which is likely to appear at this year IO event.

Smart Glass

When Google first presented information about its unusual Project Glass, it caused a lot of excitement in the network and at the same time a lot of questions about their use and application.

Project Glass, a device including Project Glass, Smart Watch and in-car Android that are projected for various Google web applications – weather, social networking, maps and navigation, Google Talk, Calendar, and many others – is likely to be presented Google I/O this year, and Google will possibly encourage developers to write apps for them.

“This year, Google will have a new focus area ‘wearable devices,’ based on Android OS. Developers think Google extended this year’s Google I/O event from two days to three days, probably to accommodate this new focus area,” a report based on Global Equity Research report said.

Google Drive in Offline Mode

Another rumor virtually confirmed the launch of Google Drive Off-line mode and the announcement of new features for this application.

During the Wall Street Journal’s yearly “All Things D” conference, Google’s Senior Vice President of Chrome and Apps Sundar Pichai dropped a bit of information about the cloud based storage solution.

“Google Drive offline is coming five weeks from today,” he said,

Google Drive will include an offline mode or offline access to the network that will work with documents stored in the cloud even if there is no internet connection.