Google Android 2.2 may just be an afterthought in most developers of Tablet and Slate PC’S pipelines as Android 3.0 seems to be the more ideal preference.
Many Tablet and PC companies new products will be launching in the last quarter of this year, and Android 3.0 is set to debut around October.
One of the more prominent companies that are sound proponents of the future version of Android is Motorola. Rumored specifications are scarce of this Droid, with 512MB RAM, an ARM processor, and microSD expandable memory. They are looking to make their first foray into the Tablet market around November.
Another company bypassing Android 2.0 to 2.2 is Notion Ink. According to a recent blog entry by the company CEO Rohan Shravan, he said this to say; “There is a big Gingerbread confusion around in the meeting rooms here. Its tricky to explain you all as well. That OS will be lot more superior than 2.2. And there ARE few products hitting with 3.0 soon. It needs to be evaluated that what does that mean. The window is really small for 2.2 devices.”
These two companies are the first ones to publically proclaim that they are shifting to Google 3.0 instead of 2.2, and many more companies with new Tablets coming out at the end of the year, have to be looking at this as “the standard for Android” Companies such as LG, Asus, Toshiba and other companies.
Android 3.0 impact on Slates in the design phase of their product development is very important. What is the main difference in Android 3.0? In essence it focus’s on tablets. It has a strict set of minimum requirements for the hardware such as; 1 GHZ CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and a display screen greater then 3.5 inches. It also gives a boost to the resolution, with a bump up to 1280 X 760. We have all heard the rumors of the next gen of smart phones packaged with a 2 GHZ processor, so tablet manufacturers will go with a higher CPU.
You will see Google Android in future development around October of this year for it to be split into 2 branche. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2
There is also murmurings that 3.0 will kill companies custom shells that they make for their devices. If you look at the Dell Streak tablet that showed up in the UK last month and will make the North American Jump in August, it was packaged with Android 1.6 and has a custom interface. They have promised upgrades for 2.2 available in September. Other companies that do custom GUI for their devices include; HTC Sense, MotoBlur, and others.
One of the big drawbacks of companies resistence to upgrade Google Android is because they have massively complex Shells, or GUI’s and upgrading them is an arduous adventure. With the eliminate of custom shells with the Google 3.0 update, it will uniform a standard operating system on smartphones, but more importantly Tablet PCS.
With the rise of a more uniform operating system, it will allow for more complex Android Applications that can function as Widgets, and GUI add on’s done by the community, which would be viable on all platforms using Android. This is a boon for the independant developers that make their living on applications, and having the ‘de facto’ standard of apps, would open up a much wider market.
A fair number of companies that use their own shell, usually have their own app market place, or company portal of recommended apps. They do this partly because many apps do not work on their devices, because of the custom Shell. Android 3.0 would eliminate the need for companies to suppor their applications and allow for a more public forum.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
