Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
This issue, more than anything else, is Google not releasing the OS source, like they have for eveything else.
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Exactly. Don't get me wrong, I like the devices, I like the OS.
My concern is Google.
They need to start getting this right or they'll end up committing suicide.
Right now Google does the work on the source, they release it to the hardware manufacturers who tweak it for their specific device.
Unlike MSFT and Apple, google (currently) leaves updates/support in the hands of the individual hardware manufacturers. That's where this starts to fall apart for them.
Android started as a phone OS, when it moved to tablets it was still a phone OS. The G-Tab did not ship with Android Marketplace, why, I think it's because Marketplace did not recognize tablets. If you navigated to Marketplace via browser and tried to download something it would tell you to log in, k fine, my gmail log in works, good, but wait, Marketplace will not let you download anything because there is no phone number associated with the device, well yeah, it's not a phone. Not all tablets have cellular capabilities so those owners were stuck with a tablet that they could not get apps for.
Google are afraid of releasing Honeycomb because they fear phone users with older less powerful/capable devices will attempt to load it risking bricking their device or having a sub par experience prompting them to trash Honeycomb.
Google are in a catch-22 right now, alienate early adopters or tarnish the brand. Tough situation.
If they want to be in the market they need to control the OS from source to device. This is not like Linux where you can rely on the community. The average Linux users have a much higher technical skill set than the average consumer. The average consumer is the target market for tablets (and phones) so you can't approach it the same way. You need to dumb it down for them.
The Ice Cream Sandwich announcement tells me they get it now and are trying to reign it back in.
And BTW, the G-Tab is really a rebranded Malata SMB A-1002.
My "G-Tab", (I'm running TNT on it) is a Malata SMB A-1004, the extra RAM is nice but the screen still sucks.