If you have your eye on one of the several Android 2.2 tablets that are hitting the market, you may end up finding yourself less than satisfied with the performance, according to Google.
Although Froyo has been a popular operating system choice for many manufacturers developing tablet PC platforms, applications that run on Android 2.2 mobile phones likely won’t run properly on tablets.
"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,” says Google Director of Mobile Products, Hugo Barra. ”Which devices do, and which don't will be unit specific, but Froyo is not optimized for use on tablets. If you want Android market on that platform, the apps just wouldn't run, [Froyo] is just not designed for that form factor. We want to make sure that we're going to create an application distribution mechanism for the Android market, to ensure our users have right experience."
But is Google simply releasing this statement for selfish reasons?
Rumor has it that Google is building their own tablet featuring their very own Chrome OS, and will release it just in time for Black Friday this year. Of course, any sales that go to an Android-based tablet between now and then will likely be sales that Google will lose, so it would be in their interest to discourage consumers from buying into the current tablet hype.
There is also the possibility that many tablet manufacturers have simply jumped the gun with Android 2.2, as Google has hinted that future versions of the OS, including Gingerbread and Honeycomb, will be more “tablet-friendly” than Froyo.
If I were in the market for a tablet this fall, Barra’s statements might give me some reservations about dropping several hundred dollars on a model that runs Android 2.2.
