Android-powered tablets appear to have lost a key ally in their quest to dethrone the Apple iPad as the king of the tablets. None other than Google has stated that current versions of its Android operating system are not optimized for tablets. In an interview with TechRadar, Hugo Barra, Google’s director of mobile products, said:
“Android is an open platform. We saw at IFA 2010 all sorts of devices running Android, so it already running on tablets. But the way Android Market works is it’s not going to be available on devices that don’t allow applications to run correctly. Which devices do, and which don’t will be unit specific, but Froyo is not optimised for use on tablets.”
Google’s decision seems to be coming quite late, considering the number of Android-powered tablets that are expected in the next few months. At the very least, tablet manufacturers will need to ensure that their devices have an accelerometer, Wi-Fi and phone capabilities to gain access to the Google Market (or possibly run their own app store).
Is the move designed to push tablet manufacturers towards the upcoming Chrome OS? Or is Google working on an optimized version of Android for tablets (Honeycomb?)? For example, Samsung has already dropped hints that future tablets will use Honeycomb.
Will Google’s less than resounding support for the upcoming Android tablets change your mind about one of these devices?