Android ipad army starts to form - as Big Rival to Apple iPad
Dell"s Streak (top right), a 5-inch tablet powered by Android, launched Tuesday in the U.K. and the device will come to the U.S. later in the summer. Samsung announces Galaxy S Android ipad......In the high-stakes race to catch Apple Inc."s hit iPad, the Android operating system that Google Inc. popularized in tablet pc is emerging as an early front-runner. The Android tablets are coming and this time Apple won"t have a big head start.
The big difference with the Android ipad army is that the Apple iPad doesn"t have much of a head start. Apple"s iPhone had a few years on the first Android device. Google"s Android platform is growing quickly, but isn"t likely to catch the iPhone in terms of smartphone market share any time soon. Google"s Android will be a solid No. 3 in smartphones.
However, tablets are a different story. Apple"s iPad isn"t as expensive as originally thought, but it"s not going to be $199 any time soon. Android ipad will hit that price point. Just to reiterate: None of these Android devices are going to matter to Apple, which doesn"t sweat market share standings.
The big question is how long it takes an Android ipad equivalent to the HTC Droid Incredible to form. The Incredible is a solid iPhone rival, but Apple had a few years to establish the its smartphone before real rivals surfaced. The iPad is a big success, but will only have a head start of a quarter or two before Android tablets appear everywhere.
Can Android ipad reach feature parity on the iPad while squeezing Apple on price?
Ò
But when it comes to tablets, operating systems and applications may become even more important differentiatorsò€”just as software became a huge advantage for Apple with the iPhone.
"Without applications, the device itself means nothing,"said Barry Lam, chairman of the contract laptop manufacturer Quanta Computer Inc., during a recent investor conference.
Google"s Android operating system, as it did in smartphones, is emerging as the most potent alternative to Apple"s technology. "The tablet trend is clearly going toward Android,"said Jack Kang, director of technical marketing for Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
Android offers several attractions. Most of the 50,000 apps that have been written for cellphones that use the operating system should run in some fashion on Android-based tablets. Android also allows most programs to work even if manufacturers change the underlying chip architecture. And Google doesn"t charge companies for using it.
If anyone"s coming back from China, I hope they"re bringing back an Android iPad, as reported on Japanese TV news. This looks like the first iPadalike to go on sale, and a large part of its appeal is the low price ($158). However, I expect some rather more expensive devices will be shown at this week"s Computex trade show in Taiwan, starting with MSI"s Wind Pad 110, which has an ARM processor running Google"s Android mobile phone operating system. Acer, Dell and Lenovo are also tipped to enter the market at some point.