Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology.
At AsiaD this week, Google’s Andy Rubin noted that there have been at the very least six million Android tablets in use. That number included only those running Google services. You could question whether the briskly selling Nook Color — which isn’t open to Android apps at large — is relevant to that tally, at the least from a developer perspective. It might certainly be the case, though, that the Kindle Fire — also expected to be a hot seller — can be a necessary addition to the number moving forward.
Still, Rubin conceded, it was a tally far behind that of the 30 million cumulative units of the iPad, which broke open the fashionable-day tablet category, extended its lead with the iPad 2, and should likely see another revision this coming spring. When Apple introduced its tablet device, it set a precedent for third-party developers by rewriting core applications to milk the iPad’s larger display with “HD” versions. And while there are still far fewer native iPad apps than iPhone apps, Apple is way ahead within the race for native tablet software.
But not everyone desires to join that race.
Unlike Apple, Google has not differentiated between Android apps optimized for smaller screens on handsets and bigger ones on tablets. While Honeycomb represented an operating system only for tablets, Google doesn’t believe that apps should follow suit. To that end, while many Android apps run on Honeycomb, they exhibit a spartan, airy feel as a result of a stretched-out phone experience. Google — via Android Market — has done little to spotlight which apps provide an outstanding tablet experience.
Through the Gingerbread / Honeycomb split, it was perhaps more understandable that Android developers would hold off on supporting tablet dimensions until the reunification of the platform that has occurred with Ice Cream Sandwich . Now, though, Google puts forth that a well-written Ice Cream Sandwich app should run well — (does that imply scale?) — on smartphones and tablets (in addition to TVs). Android, infamous for its variation among multiple screen sizes, has in a small way turned the tables on Apple, which admits that the iPad and iPhone represent two separate iOS targets.
It will come at a price. With none objective criteria for what constitutes an Android tablet app, the degree of “tablet-readiness” will likely vary significantly among apps. The iPad will likely continue to deliver a neater overall tablet app experience because iPad apps are optimized for its screen size. The advantage thus falls to Apple, not less than within the short-term.
But looking a piece more deeply into the Android ecosystem shows why conceding a 9.7-inch optimization is sensible. Not just are we seeing Android tablets ship in two main screen sizes of 10.1-inch and seven-inch, but we’re seeing many other variations resembling the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab 8.9, the 8-inch Archos 80, and the 5-inch Lenovo IdeaPad A1. While products along with the 12-inch JooJoo and 14-inch Kno textbook reader had brief or aborted marketplace entries, perhaps we’ll even see Android tablets larger than 10-inches. Such expansive canvases would assist you to read documents corresponding to magazines, textbooks and sheet music.
Within the US smartphone market, Android’s growth was driven largely by Verizon’s promotion of Droid smartphones versus the iPhone. However wasn’t only a carrier push phenomenon. Consumers flocked to the devices, and now, whilst Verizon has the iPhone, Android handsets function the exclusive smartphone on ramps for its LTE network, greatly incentivizing the carrier to favor those devices. With the tablet market being less tied to cellular connections, the intermediaries behind Android are usually not as strong (Kindle Fire notwithstanding), and the iPad remains far just before Honeycomb tablets. Through the years, though, lower average prices, more configuration options (akin to tablets with integrated or detachable keyboards), and higher (if not iPad-level) tablet app support, should arrange Android tablets to narrow the distance.
Ross Rubin ( @rossrubin ) is executive director and principal analyst of the NPD Connected Intelligence service at The NPD Group . Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
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