After lagging behind by an entire year after Apple introduced their iPad, Google finally introduced Android tablets into the market which came with incomplete features and a system entirely ridden with bugs. Till a few months ago, Android’s only offering for the tablet market for Honeycomb, which suffered due to low availability of applications and a slow and buggy interface. Developer support was virtually non existent. This has been remedied somewhat with Ice Cream Sandwich, but not entirely.
There still are a couple of issues Google should take care of regarding their tablets – UI, applications and developers. Regarding the user interface, Google should consider a redesign as the current interface on Android phones does not look good on tablets. Though this situation was slightly corrected by Honeycomb, it continued to look repulsive and the functioning remained slow. ICS may have improved the performance, but Google still needs to work on developing a new interface that is functional, fast, easy, practical and dynamic, something similar to the user interface offered by Apple and Microsoft on their tablets.
Google could also focus on competing with desktop applications offered by Windows 8 in order to place themselves at a better spot in the tablet market, especially with respect to enterprise users. Larry Page believes that Android tablets, with their performance and power, are on par with desktops at workplaces and in homes. Their functionality is expected to increase in the near future, with tablets becoming more portable, easy to use and affordable. With applications that help them complete their tasks like their desktops being available to users, tablets could provide stiff competition to laptops and desktops alike. Android tablets have as it is managed to beat the growth rate of the iPad and this is mainly owing to the wide range of applications already available to users, from metal detectors to word processors.
Developers should be given due credit for the work they put into building applications for the platform. However, that is not the case. Developers are not rewarded the way they should be, calling for Google to look into the matter. Developers working with Google have to face the inconvenience of having to test their applications on numerous variables, considering the large number of Android devices present in the market. Google needs to optimize their devices and operating systems and standardize their hardware and software. If these things are not taken care of, Microsoft is not far from surpassing them in the tablet market.
