Android gadget makers around the human beings are call corking things from the next version of Google ’s roving software , and they require the boost . Apple has a strong head start with sales of its popular iPad , while the App Store and iTunes give it apps and cognitive content , to the boot .
But after a year of prodding Google , equipment Jehovah call up they ’ve finally won with the upcoming “ Honeycomb ” upgrade to Android , which is await by the end of the first quarter and is supposed to be the first version of the computer software designed for tablets alternatively of smartphones .
Earlier this twelvemonth , for example , Samsung Electronics , had to push to have the Android Market app , which connect users to the software system ’s online hoarded wealth trove of over 150,000 apps , on its Galaxy Tab , according to one executive who asked not to be named due to his company ’s close kinship with Google .
At the time that Samsung was recrudesce the Galaxy Tab to use Android , Google was scramble to decide if it want to put its upcoming Chrome OS in tablets and make Android single to smartphones . The Chrome OS better fits Google ’s Cloud strategy , the executive articulate .
A Google voice decline to annotate on the issuing .
Google ’s decision to make a tab - friendly version of Android became a must after Apple launched its groundbreaking iPad , analysts say .
“ Earlier in the twelvemonth , Google probably thought that Chrome O might be the ripe platform for tab . However , the grandness of the compatibility of apps across smartphones and tablets , evident from the iPad experience , has create the need for Google to assure that the commercial-grade succeeder of apps can be preserved in the tablet proposition , ” said Martin Bradley , an analyst at Strategy Analytics .
Apple sold nearly 8 million iPads through the end of September , make it one of the hot product of the year . ( That tally is from prescribed Apple figures from its quarterly net conference call and does n’t include holiday sale . )
By being first , Apple has set the tone for the entire market place . Tablet makers require to put out the same OS for their smartphones and tablets so apps can be shared on either equipment . Even more crucial , apps specifically designed for tablets need to be made uncommitted , to take reward of the larger screens , more herculean processor and expanded memory on instrument panel .
Of the 300,000 or so apps available to Apple iPhone and iPod Touch exploiter , 40,000 are specifically plan for the iPad , and they are market that way on Apple ’s App Store .
By line , Google ’s Android Market does not offer any pad - only apps to users , only smartphone apps . However , upstart Appslib is filling the void with its owntablet - only app storefor Android lover . Appslib is not assort with Google .
The grandness of tweaking a reading of Android specifically for tablets and put tab - only apps on the Android Market can not be overstated .
company have a bun in the oven tablet sales to attain up to 60 million machine in 2011 , with Android and Apple ’s Io the leading software in the devices .
Market investigator Ovum await Android and Apple ’s Io to take about 71 percent of the total market for tablets and other mobile Internet devices by 2015 , while the also - rans , BlackBerry pill OS , Hewlett - Packard ’s WebOS , Intel ’s and Nokia ’s MeeGo , and Microsoft Windows making up the rest of the share .
“ It ’s hard to see past iOS and Android in tablets at the second , ” said Tony Cripps , main psychoanalyst of devices and platforms at Ovum .
Competition between Apple and Android ’s backers is so acute thatlawsuits are already flying back and forth between them .
But infighting in the Android cantonment could be the unsound job at the moment . ship’s company gripe about a number of issues in do work with Google .
“ Android is not yet quick for pads and the user experience on currently useable production is suffer , ” said Tim Coulling , analyst at Canalys . He also predicted it will become a leading OS in the pad / tablet blank space once Honeycomb is out .
There is also some contention about how Honeycomb is to be launched .
Google figure out with gadget shaper Motorola and chip Jehovah Nvidiaon a tablet gadget designed for Honeycomb , which was shown off at the cholecalciferol : Dive Into Mobile Conference in San Francisco early this calendar month .
The Internet giant ’s taste for work with a specific machine Lord and scrap maker on each major pattern change for Android has gone on for at least the past three upgrades to Android .
With version 2.2 of Android , dubbed Froyo , Google worked with smartphone maker HTC and chip designer Qualcomm to make theNexus One . In Android 2.3 , Gingerbread , Google work with Samsung Electronics on both the phone designing and chip , Samsung ’s Hummingbird C.P.U. , forthe Nexus S.
But the strategy is unjust to other Android twist makers because it give the pick out ones about a four- to five - calendar month head teacher start over others , said Glen Burchers , head of selling at Freescale Semiconductor ’s consumer chip division .
“ This set C.P.U. guys at a big disadvantage and the scheme guy wire at such a bountiful disadvantage , ” he say . “ The industriousness is not thrilled with this game Google is play . ”
Do n’t mistake this defeat for mutiny . Nobody is talk about dumping Android .
Overall , caller using Android in smartphones and tablets are tickled with Google ’s development travail . What they want earlier this class was a speedier determination to use Android in lozenge so they could put out iPad - rivals out front of the holiday season .
What machine makers are really state is : Come on Google . Help us vie against Apple . loose the dog-iron of warfare with a tablet version of the Android atomic number 8 and pad apps on the Android Market .
Google appears to have had a troubling time with Android machine developers over the retiring year . Part of the outlet is diverge strategies . equipment makers require to win marketplace share in mathematical product categories , from netbooks and smartbooks to tablets , while Google remain cloud - centric .
One matter hold machine Almighty back from using Android as they please , since it is undefendable seed software , is Google ’s certification elbow grease .
Any company that fails to watch Google ’s rules will not be attest , meaning they ca n’t use Google ’s name or logo on the merchandise or in advertizement , nor do they have access to apps in the Android Market , or gain other performance extras and software package upgrades offer via certification . The Google name alone means immediate brand recognition .
The lack of camaraderie in the Android inner circle has ache Google and machine makers alike . While Google mull over a decision on Android versus Chrome OS in netbooks , Windows run by with that pop twist class . In tablet , Apple has run off to a huge read/write head head start , while the Android encampment nearly go to put out firm rival equipment before the holidays until Samsung pushed for app support in the Galaxy Tab .
“ Android represents a fashion to safeguard Google ’s position reach that the tablet market has now come , ” said Bradley .
Android may also at long last pave the way for the Chrome OS in nomadic devices .
Ovum ’s Cripps believes Chrome OS and Android will converge over time , “ peculiarly in terms of bring the Chrome Web web browser app to Android . The Chrome browser app is really the nub of Chrome OS from a developer position and it would make sense to bring it to Android , ” he said .
Now if the Android camp can obtain a way to work together well , they may give Apple a rill for its money in the pad market .
