Before Google introduced the Nexus 7 this past summer, Android Tablets hadn’t been that successful. But the Nexus 7 changed all that. With the Nexus 7 having close to high-end specs at a budget price, it was a win/win for most of us. The only thing missing now is some great apps to run on our beautiful Nexus 7 and other tablets like the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and others. Well Google is looking to help developers out in bringing some better apps to the Tablet space. Today Google published a “Tablet App Quality Checklist” on the developer site.
Now Google can’t force developers to follow this checklist, but it is there to help developers publish some great apps for Tablet users. One great example of a Tablet app is the Google+ app. I use that app just about everyday. Plume also has a nice Twitter app fit for tablets. Google also announced today that they would be releasing tablet-focused app collections on the Play Store leading up to the Holiday Season. This should help some apps gain more popularity among Tablet users.
The Tablet App Quality Checklist has the following key areas:
- Test for Core App Quality
- Optimize your layouts for larger screens
- Take advantage of extra screen area available on tablets
- Use icons and other assets that are designed for tablet screens
- Adjust font sizes and touch targets for tablet screens
- Adjust sizes of home screen widgets for tablet screens
- Offer the app’s full feature set to tablet users
- Don’t require hardware features that might not be available on tablets
- Declare support for tablet screen configurations
- Follow best practices for publishing in Google Play
If developers can incorporate all of these bullet points into their app, it’ll be a great app to use on a tablet screen. To help persuade app developers to make their app work better on tablet screens, Google is publishing a list of Tablet App Success Stories from Mint.com TinyCo and Instapaper. Since Instapaper launched their tablet app for Android, they say a 600% increase in downloads. And TinyCo who brought Tiny Village to Android tablets saw a 35% increase in revenue per paying users compared to users on Android phones.
That sounds like a good way to persuade developers into optimizing their apps for tablets, right? What apps do you know that are optimized for tablet screens?