Android Tabs and Market Access

[rvt1000]

I've been doing some research about the different tabs out there and all though I love the price of the viewsonic 10 incher, the fact that it does not access marketplace is crazy and useless! The archos 10.1 and 7 seem great except that everyone rants about their actual build quality.

Other than the galaxy tab, what other quality tabs are out that have market access and not a branded, limited market? I'd rather not spend 650 bucks for something that's only 7 inches (compared to the ipad 9.7 inches) for practically the same price. Do the archos tabs have market place access?

I love the galaxy series and have a captivate. So I'm ready to make the plunge for the galaxy tab but would much rather save some money even if the quality is a bit less. And the fact that the galaxy tab doesn't have a usb port dirves me crazy!!

I know there are plenty of quality android tabs coming after the holidays but I have NO patience what so ever and need something now!

 

[Guamguy]

Here is the thing people don't know about the Android Market.

Android Market is for OHA as in Open Handset Alliance members only. The maker has to join the OHA to get the Market.

Second, the device must pass through a strict hardware and software compatibility suite of tests. If a device doesn't get the Android Market, there is a good chance Android Market apps will fail on it.

These rigorous procedures is the reason it holds the Android ecosystem together and prevents it from truly fragmenting.

While the big Chinese and Taiwan companies like HTC, Acer, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo might be OHA members, all the smaller companies, which often make the tablets, are not. Plus the tablets may not conform to the Android Market requirements, such as having a built in GPS and gyroscopic compass on the device.

Another issue is that when before you install an Android application, do you notice it has all these requirements you need to see before you download? A requirement that I see often is the apps looks for a "phone state". Unfortunately a tablet is not a phone and therefore has no "phone state". Thus the app may likely fail on the tablet. That is the reason why Android tablets that do have the Market are in fact, technically, phones.

Might not seem like it, but by not having the Android Market on your tablet, you're saving yourself some potential headaches.

That is why Amazon is motivated to create its own Android app store. Same with Motorola, Same with Verizon. Same with HTC and Samsung. All these app stores bypass the Android Market's stringent restrictions can be used to serve non phone Androids. Archos has its own store too.

There are some places where you can already download Android apps from web pages. A good example is Getjar. Some websites have direct downloads too. If you hit the Twitter mobiel site with an Android browser, the page offers you a link to directly download Twitter for Android into your tablet.

 

[rvt1000]

Here is the thing people don't know about the Android Market.

Android Market is for OHA as in Open Handset Alliance members only. The maker has to join the OHA to get the Market.

Second, the device must pass through a strict hardware and software compatibility suite of tests. If a device doesn't get the Android Market, there is a good chance Android Market apps will fail on it.

These rigorous procedures is the reason it holds the Android ecosystem together and prevents it from truly fragmenting.

While the big Chinese and Taiwan companies like HTC, Acer, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo might be OHA members, all the smaller companies, which often make the tablets, are not. Plus the tablets may not conform to the Android Market requirements, such as having a built in GPS and gyroscopic compass on the device.

Another issue is that when before you install an Android application, do you notice it has all these requirements you need to see before you download? A requirement that I see often is the apps looks for a "phone state". Unfortunately a tablet is not a phone and therefore has no "phone state". Thus the app may likely fail on the tablet. That is the reason why Android tablets that do have the Market are in fact, technically, phones.

Might not seem like it, but by not having the Android Market on your tablet, you're saving yourself some potential headaches.

That is why Amazon is motivated to create its own Android app store. Same with Motorola, Same with Verizon. Same with HTC and Samsung. All these app stores bypass the Android Market's stringent restrictions can be used to serve non phone Androids. Archos has its own store too.

There are some places where you can already download Android apps from web pages. A good example is Getjar. Some websites have direct downloads too. If you hit the Twitter mobiel site with an Android browser, the page offers you a link to directly download Twitter for Android into your tablet.

Awesome information! THat really helped explain the market access as I didn't know that.

Now my next question, then, is how happy are people with the other market's out there like the archos market? Do those using these markets feel like they have most of the apps they need or are still lacking?

Guess I'm just trying to justify spending the extra dough for the galaxy rather then a more affordable archos or viewsonic tab.

 

[jtbnet]

Awesome information! THat really helped explain the market access as I didn't know that.

Now my next question, then, is how happy are people with the other market's out there like the archos market? Do those using these markets feel like they have most of the apps they need or are still lacking?

Guess I'm just trying to justify spending the extra dough for the galaxy rather then a more affordable archos or viewsonic tab.

We have already added Market to gtab over on XDA-DEV...

TapNTap Keyboard Installer, plus Gapps and live wallpaper - xda-developers

Also Flash 10.1 optimized for toshiba folio (tegra2) works now...

 

[rvt1000]

We have already added Market to gtab over on XDA-DEV...

TapNTap Keyboard Installer, plus Gapps and live wallpaper - xda-developers

Also Flash 10.1 optimized for toshiba folio (tegra2) works now...

awesome...thanks...so just root it, use rom manager after flashing clockworkmodrecovery like any phone and install the update.zip from internal sd right? Sounds fairly straight forward! Now, time to go get me a gtab!!

Thanks!