- New Designs, New Market
- Android 3.0 Is Just for Tablets
Google has officially unveiled its Android 3.0, code-named Honeycomb, which it showed off briefly at CES through a Motorola tablet.
The latest version of Google’s mobile OS introduces a new UI that’s built solely for tablets and adds in a variety of features that require the larger screens or stronger processors found in these devices.
Google demonstrated the new OS version on Motorola’s upcoming Xoom tablet, expected to be released this month. The 10.1-inch Xoom showed Honeycomb’s “holographic” user interface shell. This allows for movement of content on a screen in three dimensions as well as varied effects for stacking, bringing content forward and manipulating images.
Making the Interface Interactive
Google recently admitted it was unhappy about the number of premium apps in its stores and how they were falling short of expected sales, so Honeycomb may have come at just the right time.
During Google’s unveiling, the company promised to continually develop richer APIs for developers. This initially covers a change to the home screen which many tablet users will find comforting: the home screen is no longer a dumping ground for apps but is instead part of the platform and a dynamic part of the experience.
With Honeycomb, the home screen interacts with the user directly, displays various content that continually updates, allows apps to visibly run in the background, changes more than just its orientation when the device is moved and gives even more freedom for adjustment to device maker. Other enhancements include the ability for apps sitting on the homescreen to display more information and even show interactive functionality within updates and push notifications — think of it as a Facebook notification app that says your friend wrote on your wall while it shows your wall, allows you to scroll through their profile and gives you a dedicated text box to respond, all from within the notification and not requiring a full launch of the app.
The service facilitates the “always-on” connectivity that’s been touted for years but never before been given such a clean interface and quick move to content.
What has perhaps the most potential here, however, is the ability to break apart the UI under Honeycomb’s fragmentation implementation system. This basically allows developers to compartmentalize the UI, picking which elements are included and what are reserved for specific interactions, allowing for the production of compound applications that continually build in a natural progression.
Think of this like a scrap book or collage: developers are able to gather all of the materials available; pick and choose which pieces of content they want; cut, trim or remove pieces; and then place these on top of each other to build the final application users see; turning the page (navigating in the app) will keep some of the baseline but will allow a whole new, built up experience to be demonstrated all at once, despite its many parts.
The Graphics Bulwark
While apps always dominate the conversation of which platform is better or what device range is more successful, graphics are the underlying factor that make all of those apps worthwhile, and Honeycomb has addressed this framework with some reinforcements.
Google said one of its highest priorities was improving graphics performance. Android app developers can now enable full-bodied and newly supported hardware acceleration for rendering 2D graphics by simply adding a single line of code to their existing apps. Android APIs have also gained an animation framework to help developers add smart transitions to their application UIs.
Google said its RenderScript technology will help the development of fluid and visually sophisticated 3D interface. Google showed off a few different impressive examples of apps built with RenderScript, including a 3D YouTube videowall, an eBook reader that had 3D page-flipping effects and 3D albums in a music app (the latter fueling even more speculation about a coming Google Music). So far the device that has touted this feature most has said it’ll be using an Nvidia chip to help facilitate these interactions.
There’s not much out there currently about RenderScript and we’re told access to it has been metered among programmers and developers, but the impression we were given is that it’s a language developed to implement 3D interactions with a complexity level along the lines of the C language.
New Connectivity
Android 3.0 has added in some new connectivity features to enhance what users can do with their devices, and these feel poised to help it beat out the reigning devices.
Honeycomb features built-in support for a media transfer protocol that lets users instantly sync media files with a USB-connected camera or even a desktop, without the need to mount a USB mass-storage device. As the platform continues to roll out, it expects to build in more direct USB connections with these instant-access points.
Users also can connect to various devices over USB and Bluetooth, likely keyboards for the moment. However, there are plans to extend this to Bluetooth tethering of devices, allowing tablets and other devices to share quick, small-range connections for both interactivity and Internet connections. This will allow a smartphone to talk to and interact with a tablet even if there’s no Wi-Fi or 3G/4G connection available.
Android 3.0 has also beefed up its Wi-Fi connectivity through some hardware requirements as well as a new scanning system that reduces individual scan times across various bands and filters.
Updated Set of Standard Apps
The standard apps for each device also got a bit of a refresh with Android 3.0.
Here’s a quick rundown:
- The Browser: Honeycomb’s native Web browser includes new features aimed at enhancing navigation and organization. Multiple tabs replace browser windows allowing users to quickly switch between Web pages without the need to reload pages. An “incognito” mode allows users to browse anonymously. Bookmarks and history information are unified, and users can automatically sign in to Google sites on the browser through an account book. Bookmarks can be synched with Google Chrome on other devices. Multi-touch support has been enhanced.
- The Camera and Gallery: The camera app has been redesigned for the larger screen, giving access to a variety of features including exposure settings, focus, flash, zooming and switching between front- and back-facing cameras. The app also adds in support for time-lapse video recording. The Gallery app lets users view albums and collections in full-screen and in thumbnails for easy navigation, sorting and moving.
- E-mail: The E-mail app uses a new dual-pane UI allowing e-mail viewing and organization of messages to more efficient and simultaneous. Users can select multiple messages and actions at the same time as well as sync the e-mail app and specific e-mails for later viewing or monitoring right on the home screen widget.
The New Web Market
Google also announced a new Web-based Android Market experience that allows users to look through the Android Market on their PC through a conventional Web browser.
The new market lets users find and purchase content all within the PC’s browser. When an Android user chooses to buy or install an app through the Web-based Android Market, the software is sent automatically to their phone or tablet — these devices are linked to their Android account.
This feels like another way to help Google address its frustrations with the slow growth of commercial software and premium title sales in its Android Market. It will also be able to provide users with better search and sort options than the regular Android Market by simply taking advantage of the hardware a PC offers.
Google is also prepping for in-app purchases to let users buy more content within apps instead of requiring a new app version. Google used Disney to demonstrate the coming feature on a Tap Tap Revenge game — originally the top-downloaded iPhone game app that still has a huge legacy and a huge revenue stream.
The Android Market Web site has officially launched, and can be accessed at http://market.android.com/.
The Android Market has become notorious for its display of premium and new apps, making it hard for users to find relevant and good apps even when searching for very specific content or keywords. A solid example of this is the TV commercials for mobile carrier Cellular South. In the Memphis area Cellular South advertises very frequently on TV but the only commercials we’ve seen for them in the past six months have been ones touting its branded application that aggregates what it considers to be the best and most reliable apps from the Android Market. The Cellular South app sifts through the masses and comes up with one airline app, one local food app and so on. Cellular South’s key pitch against its carrier rivals is that it has an app to help users find great apps.
Fragmentation Is Good?
Honestly, this is something we never thought we’d say, but for Google, fragmentation of Android could be a great thing. From here on out, Android fragmentation will really follow two lines: Honeycomb will be for tablets and the 2-series Android will be for smartphones.
These devices will get some apps that allow interaction between devices, but they will have their own portals. Developers will now be able to pick a line and stick to it, being able to support specific hardware and software requirements of tablets or smartphones.
While the fragmentation is shrinking slightly, mobiles will still be up in the air for which version of Android they run, but users will know what to expect for these capabilities, especially when compared to tablets.
For tablets themselves, many of which are planning to launch running Android 2.1, 2.2 and now 3.0, fragmentation will highlight the differentiation within these devices. Tablets running 2.1 and 2.2 will be limited to Android apps built for smartphones, meaning they’ll tend toward more basic and quick reading and e-mail applications with a bit of video, while Android 3.0 tablets will be largely about complex UIs, high-quality video and bigger processors. The distinctions provide great inroads into different markets, especially the consumer versus the corporate market.
Apples and Oranges, and Orange Sherbet, and Mimosas
Google has secured its platform as a great contender in the tablet space. Initially there will be some coverage of specific tablets against Apple’s iPad and iOS, but that won’t be a long-lived practice.
Google’s comfort with giving out its platform to anyone and everyone that can run it will flood the market with Honeycomb tablets in the coming months. While Android mobile were originally compared against the iPhone, the market has shifted to comparing these devices against iPhones, BlackBerrys and other Android devices.
Among the first devices announced with Honeycomb are Motorola’s Xoom that has a lot of strong display and processing features and LG’s 3D G-Slate. While the Xoom will feel like a beefed up tablet that users are familiar with, the G-Slate will feature full 3D video playback and 3D video recording, glasses-required.
The first two major devices to hit the airwaves are going to be very different in terms of price, abilities and niche, a trend that will follow every quarter with new Android tablets. While the iPad will remain the top contender for some time, Google is beginning a new wave of customization for users based upon not only their apps but the devices they can buy.
It may not beat iOS overnight, but Android is definitely a key to the future of tablets.
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New Report on Chrome OS
Few people took Google’s Android seriously when it first appeared, but it has become a dominant operating system for touchscreen products like smartphones and tablets. It threatens to replace Apple as the bestseller in smartphones.
The same could happen to Chrome, which Google has positioned as THE operating system for a coming avalanche of cloudbooks and other devices that could substantially cut into the market for portable PCs and tablets. It is aimed at both the consumer and business market.
Intel was showing two low-power PC portables with Chrome OS in its booth at CES. They were fast — fast to load and only a few seconds to get on the Web and begin running applications.
Chrome devices will have a full keyboard, unlike tablets, and be used only for cloud-based computing and storage.
Rider Research has prepared an executive briefing paper on Chrome — what it is and its likely impact.
To get a free extract, please e-mail paperboy at riderresearch dot com or call +44 (0)1280 820560
or visit www.onlinereporter.com/research_chrome.html
or visit www.onlinereporter.com/research_chrome.html
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