Google have issues with Oracle. Why not bless an alt-Java and give developers a clear signal. The end game should be
Kotlin or Xtend or ? -> Dalvik/ART. Cut out Java.
Dart is interesting but a little too Jave-ery in both syntax and tools - Dart Editor is Eclipse based. Also, not sure how committed Google is long-term.
Google's issue is too many languages and runtimes:
Go, JS/ES6/V8, Dart/DartVM, Java/ART, PaNcl, RenderScript.
With the Material/Paper UI Google have given dev's a consistent, elegant unified surface. But Google should also be moving in the direction of an (elegant) unification under the hood. Java and JS are 20 years old - but are at the core of Google's platforms - Android and Chrome/OS. But what - Kotlin, Dart, ES6/7?