We have to wonder why this is, as Google and partners HTC, Motorola and Samsung have done all they can to ensure that they have the hardware in place, as well as a decent mobile OS. So how come they overlook the most important feature, apps? You would have assumed that Google would have pushed developers to update applications on the Android Market so that they would be compatible.

The first Android tablet to support Honeycomb was the Motorola Xoom, and once that was released an influx of supported apps were expected to follow. However, Computer World seemed shocked that this did not happen, and that we still await more decent supported apps.

To give you an idea at just how bad this is, and how it could have a serious affect on the tablet market, the iPad now has 100,000 apps that are supported, and that list just keeps getting bigger. The release of more Android 3.0 Honeycomb is almost non-existent.

One of the main reasons is how Honeycomb has been designed to work with larger displays. Now developers know that they can get around this issue, but they say that it will take too much investment, something that would eat into their profit margins and not make it worth their while in the first place.

Now there are some apps out there that do not take much updating to support the new OS, but others which use both graphics and text seem to struggle, as the developers cannot find a common ground to get both to work.

We had assumed that the Xoom would have been the best selling tablet, but the lack of supported apps has to be playing its part in poor sales, as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer has sold more units. Do not get too excited, as the figure is just 100,000 since launch back on March 30th. Now not to go into too much detail, we expect that the iPad 2 sold more units than that on its first date of release. Android developers and Google had better get their act together soon, as they currently have no hope of repeating the success on the tablet market as they have on the smartphone market.

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The company has just announced its two new Jaguar Honeycomb tablets, just weeks after launching the ZMS-40 and ZMS-20 StemCell processors. Processors that the new tablets will obviously house. Developed with the OEM market in mind, the two slates come in 7” and 10” varieties.

The 7” has a 1024 x 600 resolution LCD display and the 10” has a 1280 x 800 resolution display. They both feature resistive and capacitive touchscreen abilities and come in 64GB versions. They also feature a rear and front facing 5 megapixel cameras and support 3D graphics.

They are also both equipped with 1.5 GHz quad-core ZMS-40 or dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 ZMS-20. The two devices are expected to be unleashed at the Computex event in Taiwan next week, in the meantime you can check out more details about the ZiiLabs tablets at ZiiLabs.com by clicking the link.

What do you think of these two tablets so far?

More About: Android Honeycomb, ZiiLabs

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The company has already said not to expect the tablet until the second half of this year, as opposed to this month which was the original plan. According to the article at DigiTimes this comes down to compatibility issues that the 7” device is having with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS.

Apparently a lot of the Honeycomb specific apps, which are rare in the Android Market at the moment anyway are not playing well with the 7” display the tablet has. Acer therefore is holding back the slates until these issues are addressed.

A likely release date is expected around August or September this year, other than that we will have to wait and see. In the meantime check out the full article over at DigiTimes by clicking the link above where you will find more about the delays Acer are dealing with.

What do you think of the issues?

More About: Acer, Android Honeycomb

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In that form it says that an announcement will be made on May 24th, but the strange thing is, they filed it just to fulfill Regulation FD requirements. So there you have it, there is no proof of either, and since rumors have been thin on the ground of a new eBook device, the only other explanation is an Android update. however, if there were a Nook Color 2, or whatever they will call it, what specs would you like to see?

Some of you will wonder why there will be another update so soon after the Nook Color got Froyo, but Barnes & Noble need to do all they can to keep users happy. Having said that, the likes of WSJ believes that a new device is on the way, and will be a combination between a tablet and an eReader.

They believe that it will be the most powerful Barnes & Noble device yet, and will run on Google Android Honeycomb. As yet there are no details on said device, so this is all just speculation. They could decide to go all out, or just launch a new eReader with just a few minor tweaks here and there.

What will Barnes & Noble announce, a new eReader or a Nook Color Honeycomb update?

More About: Android Honeycomb, Barnes & Noble, Nook Color

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Schmidt did not come out and say the name directly, but he did say that the next version of the mobile OS will begin with an I – you do not have to be Stephen Hawkins to understand what he means. Not much is known, but Engadget does report that it will be like a Gingerbread / Honeycomb Combo.

The CEO said that it would take some features from Android 2.4 Gingerbread for smartphones and 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets and build just one complete mobile OS. No more details were given, so we have no clue as to what features it will have or a release date, but we would not expect to see Ice Cream until late summer or even the fall.

The likes of Pocket-lint had assumed that Google Android 2.4 would be named Ice Cream, but this will only be a minor update to the current Android Gingerbread. The reason for this update is so that single-core processors will be able to use one or two functions that are not possible on 2.3, which is why not many handsets have upgraded to the OS.

How long will it be before you start getting confused with all the Google names for their mobile OS?

More About: android gingerbread, Android Honeycomb, google

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According to Pocket-lint, the Viewsonic ViewPad 4 will come with Google Android 2.4 and will be launched in April, and will not be assigned Ice Cream, as it will just be a minor update as the current version of Android will not allow single-core processors to run apps designed for Honeycomb, only dual-core processors can at this stage.

Pocket-lint seems to think that this is a cover-up by Google, as they know that there are not many devices running 2.3. Wonder if this minor update will be pushed to more devices now – especially once Honeycomb apps takes off?

This latest news goes against all that we thought we knew; Tech2 as well as many of you assumed that 2.4 was going to be called Ice cream, but we now accept that this will be saved for Android 3.1. It was also thought that we would have to wait a while for 2.4; but two months is not that far off.

Do you think that Google made a mistake with Android 2.3 Gingerbread?

More About: Android 2.4, Android Honeycomb, google

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The SDK for Android 3.0 was launched last week, we have a nice screenshot of the OS in action – let us hope that we do get to see the final release this week. Yes the launch of Honeycomb must be very exciting for Google, but let us not forget that they are stepping into the unknown with this.

The reason we say this is because this is the first mobile OS from Google that has been developed for use with tablet devices only. We were all shocked when Google made that announcement, and are now wondering what they will call the next Android OS update for smartphones? The Tech Herald wonders if this will also succeed 2.3 at a later date?

However, doing something like this does make sense, as there are bound to be compromises when it comes to offering a mobile OS for use on a smartphone and a tablet. Apple has managed to do this well, but there were issues from the start, which is why only now are we starting to get basic features on the iPad that iPhone 4 users have been enjoying for months. Learn more about Android 3.0 Honeycomb before its release here.

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From what we know there will only be a few tweaks, but it is Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb that got all the attention – and for good reason – as it will be designed for use with tablets. As yet we have no clue as to what updates 2.4 will come with, but Engadget and Tweakers will no doubt keep us fully informed.

From what we know about 3.0, Honeycomb will not be made available for smartphones – not sure what the likes of Droid and Galaxy handsets will get in its place? So we know that this new upcoming mobile OS will be solely for tablet devices, which will certainly keep LG happy, as they did not want to release their tablet until Google had designed a version of Android that is up to the task.

According to Tim Stevens from Engadget this next version of Android is considered to be the next-generation – so nothing like the current version then. We do not want to put our neck on the line here, but Apple had better make their next version of iOS something special – otherwise Google could be breathing down their necks in the tablet OS market as well.

Do you think Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb will take the fight to Apple’s iOS 4 or even version 5?

More About: android gingerbread, Android Honeycomb, google

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At the moment most Android smartphones and tablets feature a home button, a menu button, a back button and a search button (see below), however it looks like Android 3.0 Honeycomb will not require physical keys, instead it will feature dedicated softkeys.

Below we can see a sneak peak at the Motorola Stingray‘s UI, it does not show a lot, but does show a back, home and menu button, supposedly these will move when you have the tablet at a different orientation.

Whilst removing physical buttons from Android devices and replacing them with softkeys sounds like a small change it will drastically affect how people will use their tablets and smartphones, personally I feel that there is nothing wrong with the 3 or 4 physical buttons currently used as they can seriously improve productivity, but that said physical buttons tend to be more prone to going wrong than softkeys, also they somewhat limit a device’s design.

Taylor Martin at PhoneDog suggests that if Apple decided against a physical key-less tablet and smartphone there must be a reason behind it, therefore he seems doubtful about the idea.

It could well be that Google decide to require physical buttons with the final Honeycomb build, however for now we can assume that they are really planning to mix things up, I guess time will tell to see if this is really a good idea or not.

Do you think Android Honeycomb devices should feature physical buttons?

More About: Android 3.0, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Android Honeycomb, Google Android

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According to this report from Phandroid, Honeycomb will be arriving during February of 2011. However, rather than be available for all Android devices, we are hearing that Honeycomb will stay specific to Tablet devices, perhaps similar to that of RIM’s new BlackBerry Tablet OS which is looking pretty slick we might add.

Furthermore, Phandroid say that both Motorola and LG have plans to release Tablet devices in February and March, and that both of them will be equipped with NVIDIA Tegra 2 processors.

We can’t wait to see some UI previews of Honeycomb, so we’re hoping we see some leaks before the end of the year. What are your thoughts on this Android, Tablet-specific OS?

More About: Android Honeycomb, Android OS Honeycomb, Google Android

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