Android tablets are a dime a dozen. Because of the openness, any electronics manufacturer can and likely has taken a crack at their very own tablet. Some okay, some great, some bad, there’s one that likely fits your needs. Over at Pocketnow, Joe Levi wrote up a solid post answering the question, “Why are There Only a Few Hundred Android Tablet Apps?
Compared to iOS with over 100,000 apps for the iPad, Android absolutely pales in comparison. There are six reasons why which we’ll get into in this post. The first reason is non-market or should we say non-play store tablets, basically devices without access to the Play store. Barnes And Noble’s Nook Color and Amazon’s Kindle Fire are two Android tablets that come to mind. Both very popular, yet no access to the Play store.
The second reason is most tablets running an older version of Android. We’ve heard about this issue far too often, including with smartphones. Most run Gingerbread or Honeycomb, both now defunct, while a small percentage are running the latest greatest Ice Cream Sandwich. Being that Google is really wanting manufacturers to run Android 4.0 or greater on their devices, we’ll hopefully see this continue to change with new tablets that come out.
A third reason is more independent developers with less resources compared to big developers who have plenty of cash at hand. One could say this is a matter of opinion, but Joe goes on to explain as well as how it can be limiting. Android seems to get a wider variety of apps however.
The fourth reason is “fragments”, not to be confused with fragmentation. Essentially, programmers can follow a pattern that splits apps into chunks that are laid out on various screen sizes. What this does is makes it so the app can be created once and work on three different platforms running different resolutions with different screen sizes. It works, though takes time to figure out and deploy. Where time is already spread very thin, this can be a negative.
Fifthly, and this is similar to the last reason, but there are many different variations. Different screen sizes, different hardware, etc. The beauty of the iPad is that there is only a few variants which makes it easier to develop for.
Lastly, the amount of developers. The reality is that there are far more iPads on the market than Android tablets. And according to many statistics, iOS makes developers more money than Android. That’s a big incentive, both more product out there and the ability to generate more of an income. Google still stands to gain a lot of traction with tablets. Thanks to their push with Android 4.0 and the upcoming Nexus tablet supposedly priced at $199, we’ll likely see a much better year for Android tablets.