First off, let me say that I love Android. I love the freedom to customize, I love the functionality (both included and added later on), I like most of the custom UIs, and I even like our faithful little android, Andy. However, I must say, as of this current timeline, the tablet market for Android is downright horrifying.
The tablet market as it stands now is reminiscent of the phone market before the Nexus One and Droid hit. Unlike the phone manufacturers, there is no cohesion in the tablet releases. The wonderfully amazing tablets that are supposed to come out (Adam Ink, Archos, others) are nowhere to be found and have almost no definitive timeline for their release.
Further adding to the problem is the weak hardware offerings. There is such a large gap in the quality of hardware with the current tablets we have. Virtually every phone that exists uses capacitive technology, but I would say less than a tenth of the tablets do. The iPad success has given way to an overabundance of terrible junk from China that is doing nothing but tarnishing the name of Android and giving new consumers a bad impression.
Even worse is fragmentation. While the phone market is largely stabilizing and most phones are now at least at 2.1 or being discontinued for older ones, the tablet market is filled with low end Android 1.5-1.6 that is stripped of a larger part of its functionality. Most lack access to the key Google apps that make Android so worthwhile. With no access to the market, sideloading is essentially the only route to improving your android library which in turn will lead to rampant piracy as the Chinese industry has flooded the market and over saturated the playing field.
While there is hope in the form of the Galaxy Tab, for the moment it is looking to be a carrier-locked tablet. This is a bad move, locking consumers into cell phone contracts where the carriers have all the power to determine what will be on the tablets and what can be done with them. One only needs to look at recent trends with AT&T and Verizon to see where this will lead.
So what would be the solution?
Well, likely the most obvious one to me is for Google to release their own tablet. While the Nexus One wasn't a smashing success by their hopes, it altered the playing field by demonstrating what good hardware combined with an up-to-date OS can do for the market. It's now rare to see cell phones with processors weaker than 600 MHz and an Android version less than 2.1 because of Google's proactive decision.
We need Google to once again demonstrate what can be done with Android and the proper hardware. I'm truly hoping that Gingerbread brings more tablet oriented functionality and allows the vendors to create something worthwhile. I'm still anxiously waiting for a truly worthy iPad competitor, one that has market access and isn't tied to a cell phone carrier. I don't think that's too much to ask is it?
The tablet market as it stands now is reminiscent of the phone market before the Nexus One and Droid hit. Unlike the phone manufacturers, there is no cohesion in the tablet releases. The wonderfully amazing tablets that are supposed to come out (Adam Ink, Archos, others) are nowhere to be found and have almost no definitive timeline for their release.
Further adding to the problem is the weak hardware offerings. There is such a large gap in the quality of hardware with the current tablets we have. Virtually every phone that exists uses capacitive technology, but I would say less than a tenth of the tablets do. The iPad success has given way to an overabundance of terrible junk from China that is doing nothing but tarnishing the name of Android and giving new consumers a bad impression.
Even worse is fragmentation. While the phone market is largely stabilizing and most phones are now at least at 2.1 or being discontinued for older ones, the tablet market is filled with low end Android 1.5-1.6 that is stripped of a larger part of its functionality. Most lack access to the key Google apps that make Android so worthwhile. With no access to the market, sideloading is essentially the only route to improving your android library which in turn will lead to rampant piracy as the Chinese industry has flooded the market and over saturated the playing field.
While there is hope in the form of the Galaxy Tab, for the moment it is looking to be a carrier-locked tablet. This is a bad move, locking consumers into cell phone contracts where the carriers have all the power to determine what will be on the tablets and what can be done with them. One only needs to look at recent trends with AT&T and Verizon to see where this will lead.
So what would be the solution?
Well, likely the most obvious one to me is for Google to release their own tablet. While the Nexus One wasn't a smashing success by their hopes, it altered the playing field by demonstrating what good hardware combined with an up-to-date OS can do for the market. It's now rare to see cell phones with processors weaker than 600 MHz and an Android version less than 2.1 because of Google's proactive decision.
We need Google to once again demonstrate what can be done with Android and the proper hardware. I'm truly hoping that Gingerbread brings more tablet oriented functionality and allows the vendors to create something worthwhile. I'm still anxiously waiting for a truly worthy iPad competitor, one that has market access and isn't tied to a cell phone carrier. I don't think that's too much to ask is it?
