Google’s director of mobile products, Hugo Barra, was speaking to technology site techradar.com when he uttered the following:
Android is an open platform. We saw at IFA 2010 all sorts of devices running Android, so it’s 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. […] Which devices do, and which don’t will be unit specific, but Froyo is not optimized for use on tablets. […] We want to make sure that we’re going to create a application distribution mechanism for the Android market, to ensure our users have right experience.
The statement is a bit shocking, as dozens of Android-based tablets — many running Android 2.2 — are due to hit the marketplace in the near future, but the comment is also smart. Google seems to be hedging their bets on what the user experience will be like with the current iteration of their mobile operating system; and perhaps foreshadowing that a future version of Android will be optimized for tablet devices (Honeycomb?). We don’t care what Mr. Barra says, we still want a Galaxy Tab… like now.
