Reports of an unstable Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system have alerted Apple to the possibility of cornering the market on handheld tablets. The American multi-media giants have already kicked up a whirlwind since the release of the iPad2 and whilst their competitors are facing potentially disastrous technical errors, Apple are poised to take advantage.
The problem for tablet makers incorporating the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, lies in Google’s failure to pay “attention to simple detials.” Analyst Trip Chowdry of global Equities Research believes Google “completely misfired,” on Honeycomb and doubts whether the search engine leaders will get a second chance to rectify the problems and regain a foothold on tablet sales.
Chowdry’s statement pointed the finger at Google for not doing their research and accused them of producing a user interface that “does not come naturally.” The software is being branded as “poorly designed.” He went on to say that Honeycomb appears to be incomplete and more of a testing ground and that Google have produced software people would expect to use “stepping out of the 1980’s.”
The fiery report comes as bad news to Motorola whose Xoom tablet is arguably Apple’s closest rival – and in principle because of the Google search engine. Reports of a poor battery life have also dented their chances of rivalling the Americans. Given the Xoom comes with an $800 price tag customers will expect much more from their investment. Subsequently the sales return for the Motorola Xoom is extremely weak.
The problems with the Android 3.0 however will not be solved overnight which gives Apple a prime opportunity to boost the sales of their already popular iPad2. The damaging reports against the Xoom will also come as encouraging news to other tablet manufacturers, HP who are ready to launch the TouchPad tablet with its own operating system and Research In Motion whose PlayBook with the Blackberry OS due for release later this month are expected to benefit from the issues with Android.
Despite Chowdry’s report however, media tech outlets are still buying in sufficient stocks of the Motorola Xoom and manufacturers such as HTC and Acer are continuing to bet heavily on Honeycomb. That major players are keeping faith with the Google OS casts some doubt on whether Chowdry’s claims are being blown out of proportion.
Whatever the case may be, Motorola are not taking any chances of plummeting any further in the tablet market and reports suggest they have already started work on a successor. As the Xoom is the first commercial device to run Android 3.0 teething problems should have been expected and given Motorola have called for a halt on orders past June, shows they are eager to float a new and improved operating system as soon as possible. Was this just a ploy to wait and see what features Apple came up with on the iPad2 all along?
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