Samsung is getting excited about their launch of Galaxy Tab. I believe Galaxy Tab will be the first and one of the most important Android tablets that will launch this year. There will be a lot of no-name tablets but they won’t get as much buzz or even as much polish as the Galaxy Tab. The ones to top it are probably going to be Motorola’s tablet and Notion Ink’s Adam.
The specs of Galaxy Tab are nothing to be ashamed of, but they are nothing special, except for the resolution that is higher than anything Android had so far: 1024×600.
Samsung said that Galaxy Tab will be updated to Gingerbread but not to the next version, Honeycomb. Their next tablet is going to feature Android Honeycomb, which apparently is going to be tablet optimized according to Samsung:
“Samsung’s head of product planning, WP Hong, has said that “moving forward, with Honeycomb, that will be used in the next generation tablet, as it is specifically optimized for different type of tablet, and will be used on another product only.”
Now, this worries me a little. First of all, I believe it implies that Honeycomb will come before summer, just like Froyo, because it’s reasonable to assume that their tablet will come in about 1 year from now. I was hoping Google would start updating Android every year after Gingerbread, but it seems it will be every 6 months or so for at least 2 more versions – or just one if they intend to announce new Android versions from now on in the same time with new iOS, before summer.
Another reason why I’m worried is because he mentions that Honeycomb is optimized for tablets, or at least for a “different type of tablet” – whatever that means. So does that mean that Gingerbread is NOT going to be optimized for tablets? That would be a huge mistake, and it would mean Android will get a true iPad competitor after about 1 year and a half, after Honeycomb launches. It already seems too late after just 6 months since iPad launched. Consumers, businesses and developers are eating iPad up, and everyone seems to jump on the iPad bandwagon, much faster than they did with iPhone. If this happens after just 6 months, what will happen after 18 months?
Now, let’s assume Gingerbread is actually optimized for tablets, and that Honeycomb will be optimized for a different kind of tablet – that’s still pretty bad. I thought they were going to make Android to scale up to any form factor, and with the new design overhaul in Android 3.0, I expected things will settle down for a while because they will get it right this time. They can’t dramatically change design every 6 months.
If Gingerbread is not optimized for tablets, is it even worth it to buy Galaxy Tab, considering it will only be updated to Gingerbread?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPfCZC4VHnE&feature=player_embedded