Atom runs Android, Google plans tablet
But Chrome to be key cloudbook OS
With the iPad in the market and a host of Linux or Windows tablets to follow, all eyes are on Google's response. Its upcoming Chrome OS, which is entirely geared to mobile browsers, will be important in the new hybrid formats between phone and PC. But before those 'cloudbooks' debut later this year, Android is also expected to appear on a tablet soon.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted to the New York Times that Google was working on its own Android tablet rather than relying on third party vendors alone - a tactic it has already tried, with limited success, in smartphones, with the Nexus One launch. However, given that the tablet is an emerging category, Google may want to ensure it dominates it under its own brand, and turns the format to its vision of browser-oriented, cloud-based activities - rather than the downloaded content that is the centrepiece of iPad.
Other tablets expected around midyear are a MeeGo device from Nokia, the HP Slate, Dell's Streak and Lenovo's already announced IdeaPad s10-3 - and we are still waiting to see Microsoft's two-screened Courier concept platform turn into a commercial product.
At the chip level, the tablet will be a key testing ground in the battle between the Intel x86 and the ARM processor architectures. ARM licensees like Qualcomm and Freescale are edging into Intel's PC territory via hybrid devices like e-readers and the new smartbook designs, while Intel is pushing its low powered x86 platform, Atom, into ARM's smartphone heartland, again hoping to use tablets and other 'in-between' products as a conduit.
Although Intel has its own chip/OS combination - Atom and MeeGo, the latter in conjunction with Nokia - optimized for netbooks and tablets, it cannot ignore other operating systems. In netbooks, Windows remains dominant over Linux, and in the new formats, Android could be a major player. This week, Intel announced it had ported the Google OS to Atom, targeting smartphones and slates. Renee James, general manager of Intel's software and services group, told EETimes, at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, that there were already interested customers for Atom/Android. "Intel is enabling all OSs for Atom phones," she said. LG is the first vendor to show an Atom-based smartphone, the GW990, which will ship in the summer, though this will run MeeGo.
Some vendors have moved a step ahead of Intel with their own ports. Acer put Android on Atom netbooks last year.
Copyright © 2010, Wireless Watch
Wireless Watch is published by Rethink Research, a London-based IT publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter delivers in-depth analysis and market research of mobile and wireless for business. Subscription details are here.
COMMENTS
@Anonymous Coward Don't do it..
I have a Nexus One and my one works perfectly. Android is by far the future and will undoubtedly set the stage for future devices and set the stage for the next "big thing" in technology. If you have had a dodgy one then that's too bad however would you never buy a top brand again because of a faulty product one time? As for the forum posts and Google not seeming arsed. Have you ever seen a forum where everyone posts positives? Because I haven't.
No, Tablets are not a new market.
However good/bad they have seemed, windows tablets have been around for ages.
It's only seemed like it was a 'new market' once everyone started w*tting themselves when steve jobs told the world they would be incomplete and lesser human beings unless they bought an Ipad.
Fanboi alert!
Why not sell it? Well first off, it's not mine. It belongs to the company I work for. Secondly; we support a java application that we license from a third party for our customers to use. Long story short; Mac users are /constantly/ having trouble with it. (90% of the time it is simply user error; they can't find what button to push, or how to navigate thier own file system hierarchy to find the files they saved.)
If it were up to me, the support guy who has to use it, the programmers or even the CEO we wouldn't sell it; we'd go completely unbelievably office space on the damned thing. There would be a large amount of catharsis in reducing it to sparkling shards. (In an environmentally appropriate container of course; the back light contains Hg.)
As to what does my comment have to do with the article? Exactly as much as the comment I responded to: nothing. The comment I responded to was griping about how trash a Nexus One was. Personally, I’m even less (is that possible?) a fan of Google than I am of Apple, but as his Googlebashing was in response to some Apple bashing I thought one pointless anecdote deserved another.
In all honesty, the best mobile device I’ve encountered so far is the HTC hero. I can’t speak to the Nexus One/Desire or even the Milestone. I can speak to the Hero; I’m impressed.
That then goes into the realm of “dilemma.” It’s easy for me to dislike Apple; their product are non-interoperable shite that make my life as a sysadmin a living hell. It’s much harder to dislike Google; they are invasive privacy ignoring corporatists that hide behind a thin veil of “do no evil.” They make fantastic products though.
And in case you are wondering, I’m not a fan of Microsoft or Linux either. Microsoft are evil vicious greedy fascists…but at least they are the devil I know. Ballmer’s really not all that bright, and so he’s predictable. Terrible, but predictable. Linux needs to grow the heck up if it wants to play in more than appliance servers of the embedded space. I use RHEL all over the place (I run mixed MS/RHEL networks,) but seriously it needs some work in the usability department. Webmin, in case you are wondering, is an absolute godsend.
So what does all this have to do with the price of grain on the prairie?
TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES DON’T GIVE A FLAMING **** ABOUT YOU. Not a single one of them. Some are marginally less terrible than others. Some are predictable enough to be dealt with. All of them think of you as nothing more than a walking wallet; to be slavishly devoted to them, to defend their indefensible actions and/or to buy their product without due, rational consideration is a sign that you are completely and utterly incapable of thinking for yourself.
Every single one of these tech companies will sell you, your family and their own grandmothers for a bent copper. That being the case the only winning points that any tech company has with me is “do they make my life easier, or more difficult?”
Apple happens to be one that causes me nothing but grief; and has for two decades now. It was a nice counterbalance <troll> to the nexus one gripe.
Also: you should one of these days take a look at your post history. Bashing people who bash Apple, defending Apple, more bashing people who bash Apple…really dude? I mean, really? Are you so insecure and lacking of personal identity that the only way you have to feel good about yourself is to bond yourself to a tech company that doesn’t even know you exist? Either you are the worst astroturfer in the world, or you have some serious self-confidence issues.
In any case, please note that in my previous post I used a troll Icon. Note that I am using one now.
I love it when, despite this...there is always someone who takes things way too seriously. Well, since my large rant to offend <everyone> done, I’m going back under my bridge now.
Yeah...
...but which hardware manufacturer is not now planning a tablet! Apple could fart in a jar and flog it, 2 months later everyone else will doing it to!
I'd have to agree with xpert_con
I've had my Nexus One for about a month, and I love it. It sucks that AC's N1 was damaged before he received it, and he was certainly right to return it, but what I've been hearing on forums (and my own experience) is that satisfied customers vastly outnumber those who are having issues. I would hope that one unfortunate experience can be put behind you, and you give Android devices another try.
I would really like to see a good Android-powered tablet out there. I really liked the concept of the iPad, I just think it's implementation sucks arse. The same kind of concept but running a decent OS will make for a really sexy bit of kit.
