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Eric Schmidt confirms Android (Marketplace?) for Tablets

Posted by Charbax – March 17, 2010 – View Comments

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, recently spoke about large screen Android Tablets at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit keynote (at timecode 10 minutes and 39 seconds). It’s a nice way of Eric Schmidt to indirectly confirm that Google is definitely going to support the development of Android based Tablets as alternatives on the market to the upcoming iPad.

When I say “phone”, you might have a really big phone, like a phone about “this” big (he shows a size of about 10″ diagonal for a tablet with his hands), also known as a Tablet, makes sense [to have] big screens (…) you are going to have them from many vendors including using Google’s Android Operating System.

How soon until Google announces official Marketplace support for all Android Tablets?

Of all the Android Tablets which I have filmed so many of at the last couple months at CES, Mobile World Congress and CeBIT consumer electronics shows, none of the companies presenting those tablets were able to confirm if and when they might be allowed to include the Google Marketplace on those tablets officially supported by Google. As you may know, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet and any other currently shipping Android tablets around the world, none are yet officially certified by Google to include the Google Marketplace.

As you can see from my videos of the Archos 7 Home Tablet, the Hott MD500, the $199 Freescale powered tablets, Creative Zii Egg, Altina’s 4.8″ Android GPS Tablet, the Camangi Webstation, Forsa 7″ Android Tablet, 1Cross Tech MIDhybrid, Hard Kernel ODroid and many many more which you can find at http://armdevices.net/category/tablets/, Android Tablets can be sold for cheaper, they can come with or without 3G, they may not come with capacitive but only resistive screens to save costs, they may not include cameras or even accelerometers. They instead bring higher resolutions, larger screens, more connectors and ports (such as built-in USB host, HDMI outputs..) and most importantly, Android Tablets can be sold at more affordable prices and be sold at retail stores without the need to signup for 2-year subscription plans with telecom carriers. Basically, the Android Tablets can occupy the market segments that go from the iPod Touch to the iPad.

Will Apple have a hard time selling as many devices and making as much revenues and profits in a market when dozens or hundreds of Android based competitors are going to be available for a lot cheaper prices and offer if not at least the same, then likely more features because of differentiation through free market competition? Android Tablets are likely to come with Flash support, HDMI outputs, USB host ports, hard drive storage options, storage expantion, Pixel Qi screens, removable batteries, video-conferencing, full video and audio codecs support, mass storage device modes not requiring iTunes to synchronize media files, open source and even open firmware software updates for the installation of alternative Android firmwares and even alternative Linux OSes including Ubuntu, Maemo, Angstrom. Can Apple compete with that?

Also check my (off camera) interview with Andy Rubin and Eric Schmidt about Android Marketplace on Tablets and Laptops from Mobile World Congress last month: http://armdevices.net/2010/02/22/i-interviewed-eric-schmidt-and-andy-rubin-at-mwc-off-camera-for-now-watch-eric-schmidts-keynote-video/

This following video starts at the correct 10m39s timecode when you click the play button, where you can see Eric Schmidt’s above statement regarding Google’s official support for Android Tablets:

You may copy and paste this embed code to your blog if you want the embedded video to start at that same timecode:

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  • Sandra Johnson
    Just read about Android updating the Droid site. Honestly, I never use them for apps as there are better marketplaces out there like RawApps. Even AppBrain is okay (very sloppy tho) in comparison to the actual Android market. Very sad!
  • turn_self_off
    he still says "phone", so i suspect that they will still require a 3G or later data connection for it to be a market enabled device (iirc, thats one of the requirements they currently have for allowing market and google services apps to be bundled). As such, forget about those non-3G archos devices or similar.

    or in other words, when i see a official archos firmware with market, i will believe it. Until then its basically rumor spin.
  • Why would Google want to prevent themselves from competing on the market segments of the non-3G, WiFi-only iPod Touch and iPad?

    I heard the iPod Touch is actually selling faster than the iPhone, and I think it is likely that the $479 WiFi-only iPad will sell faster than the 3G-enabled $829 iPad.

    And who decides that what can be described as a Phone may not provide Google Voice VOIP, SIP or Skype functionality over WiFi-only or using 3G over a Mifi adaptor or using Bluetooth tethering?

    Most if not all the 30'000 Android apps work just as well if not some times better and faster over WiFi as they do over 3G.

    Nothing stops Google from providing different filters for the Google Marketplace, so people using a Tablet without camera for example don't try to install apps that require to use the camera. Same with accelerometer, hardware vs software home/menu/back buttons, resolutions and screen sizes. It would be a piece of cupcake for Google to simply enable filters and have Marketplace available on all types of devices and not only on the more expensive smartphones sold by HTC, Motorola and Samsung.
  • turn_self_off
    right now, the way google is handling android, specifically the bundling of the google services apps and such, confuses the hell out of me. On the one hand, it would make sense for them to allow bundling of these apps on all android devices sold. On the other, they may want to keep some control on the experience of said apps.

    thats why i would love to see it happen, but i wont believe it happening until i actually see non-phone hardware with at least market bundled. Its basically my way of avoiding having hopes crushed.
  • While more than 100 Android based tablets, laptops and e-readers are featured on my blog, that I filmed demos these last couple months, none of these are yet on the market. Except for the Archos 5 Internet Tablet and maybe a couple other products such as Spring Design, Nook, and Camangi Webstation and perhaps a couple others in specific markets, perhaps only in Asia for some.

    All these plenty of Android tablets, laptops, e-readers and set-top-boxes are really just about to really be released to the market. So my guess is that many things might be happening just as all those devices come to the market.

    Sure it's weird that Google hasn't yet made things very open and official about how they plan to support all those different types of devices. On the other hand, one can perhaps guess that there is a lot of very large investments involved in developing the first batch of HTC, Motorola and Samsung phones, that it may be in the interest of Google's biggest partners of them not rushing too fast with opening up the Marketplace to all kinds of cheaper devices, at least just not yet, and not officially yet.

    While small teams of engineers can make prototypes that run Android more easily than using any other types of software, some of the initial big investors in Android literally invested billions of dollars in R&D in the Open Handset Alliance these past couple of years. To some degree, Google has to time the releases of software updates and announcements for Marketplace on new platforms so that those investments can be recouped.

    But my guess is that with not only small manufacturers releasing cheap Android products, but also big manufacturers like Dell, Lenovo, Philips, HP, Acer, Asus all comming with alternative Android devices, Google will most likely open up the Marketplace to many more types of devices released by many more vendors very soon.
  • Jack
    At what point did this become an Android vs. the world blog? I like Android, but with some of the limitations, I am still considering a device with Ubuntu or an iPad, either of which would still be ARM-based. Why the fixation on beating Apple's ARM-based unit?
  • Apple have been very successful with their ARM based products during the last few years, making record-braking huge profit margins on the devices. I'd even guess most of Apple's revenues and profits come from the iPhone, iPod Touch and which they hope to be iPad.

    I think it is a relevant question to ask what happens once open source Android based competition comes to the market. Especially as Apple has a marketing clout that enables them to bring more interest to new market segments. For example, with Apple's marketing about the iPad, it will likely accelerate interest for the Android based Tablets as well, just because consumers and the media will spend more time considering the alternatives.

    While I'd gladly cover Apple products if I can get or borrow some review samples, this blog is about diversity and competition on the market to accelerate the technological progress and improve choice for consumers. Apple does not exhibit at trade shows like CES, Mobile World Congress and CeBIT, which is why I haven't filmed video interviews or demonstrations of their products thus far.
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