As Google looks to the future of Android and its platform-wide tablet philosophy, you can’t help but be reminded of the past.
11 years ago, after all, Google was the first to focus on creating an optimal Android tablet experience. Back in the prehistoric era of 2011, Le Googlé launched Android 3.0 Honeycomb, its primary Android tablet push, in an effort to bring developers on board with the introduction of software and large-screen app interface optimization.
At least that effort did not last long. In about a year, Google – well, you know, Googled. The company has lost its focus, moved away from its vision, and finally allowed the concept of Android tablets to fade without any meaningful progress or any real platform-level promotion.
So when word broke that Google, with its own 2023-targeted Pixel tablet product, was putting even more pressure on the world to take Android tablets seriously again, it was hard not to feel a certain sense of Diza Vu – a feeling that Hey, we’ve been down this road before. What could be possible This Is time different?
This is a valid question. I mean, heck, there was a time when Android tablets broke down 11 years ago and gained meaningful traction. And in the decade-plus since then, Apple has only strengthened its position as the de facto business tablet standard. How can come back Now Matter of a new “like an iPad, but with Android” option?
The answer, it turns out, could be right under our sniffly noses. The short version is that Google may not even be Try To compete directly with the iPad for this go-round in the general tablet market. Instead, it may look to create a whole new one Department Devices that can own it alone
And for us, the effects of mere tech-totin ‘mortals can be far-reaching.
Pixel tablet puzzle
At the moment in the technological evolution timeline, one thing is impossible to deny: a new iPad is sure to come out with a competitor in 2022 I think so Like a fool’s errand
Of course, for someone like that Me – Anyone who thinks Apple’s approach to software design and ecosystem control is completely unprepared – a mandatory “like iPad, but with Android” option may suffice. But for the more general tablet-buying public, you need to consider a device that (a) does not compete only for price (Hi, Amazon Fire!) And (b) a device that does not boast separately. Need. The operating system as the starting point of its differences.
Enter the pixel tablet.
Google Google’s mysterious return to tablet hardware left most of us unprepared for the release of last week’s Google I / O announcement. And many are knocking the still-early-in-development tablet for its thick and rather mundane look.
To be sure, the tablet that Google has shown must not look like your typical 2022 premium tablet. It seems to have a really thick side and its bezels bring to mind more budget-level designs or tablets. Several years ago.
Google Interestingly, it does not look like a pixel device in terms of design language or general appearance. And yet, Google is clear about the fact that it is a pixel product and through it – and much more For the purpose of positioning As a premium device.
From the surface, at least, some add-ons don’t seem to matter. But like so many Google-related things, this story may have more than what we see on the most obvious outer level.
Considerations:
- Google’s Rumor is working on a new nest-hub-style device that will feature a detached screen – a display that can be pulled from the base and used as a tablet, in some capacity.
- We know that Android 13 has a lot of new features that suggest Google’s cooking, creating a whole new category on the same line of versatile, dock-related devices. With the exception of interface optimization, we see a lot of elements related to converting a tablet to a shared surface, specially designed widgets and screensaver-like elements that allow anyone to use docod-mode – such as a more advanced and useful one. Today’s version of the smart display concept. And all of this will come with an expanded and re-emphasized multi-user profile system that will make it easier for any authorized user to select such devices and access their own stuff.
- The official images of the Pixel tablet shared by Google in I / O show the connectors on the back of the device – in particular, the right kind of pogo-pin-style connector that allows a device to connect to the dock only in the right area.
Google - Remember what we said a second ago about the Pixel tablet not being too much in the way of a simple pixel design language? That’s true. But you know what kind of design language the device has By Is there? Nest. Look at the picture again. It looks exactly like what you would expect from a nest hub without a base.
Google So with the caution that we’re doing an awful lot of dot-connection here, all the parts seem to add up and point to a consistent conclusion. And while it may seem admirable, the Pixel tablet may somehow relate to the isolated Nest Hub concept, or at least have the same purpose, but it is branded (ahem – look at this eyebrow-raising aside).
And that, my dear, takes us back to our central question of how and why, right now, Android tablets can be important today.
Pixel tablet purpose
As an example of how to use the Pixel tablet, Google seems to be imagining for the future Android tablet, what we see is not actually a tablet in the traditional sense. It’s more of a soup-up smart display Also Provides some personal computing capabilities.
If the next-generation Android tablet model revolves around a shared dock-display surface, it’s essentially becoming a home or office Hub, First and foremost – a way for anyone to see basic information and relevant intelligence for public use. It will probably play an important role in connected-device controls – thermostats, smart lights and other such home and / or office appliances.
In contrast to today’s smart displays, the ultimate ambition with this product seems to be to provide a fully customizable and information-rich environment in that docked form – which is easily seen to be useful and opens up many attractive doors in front of the house. And in the business environment.
And once you consider the ability of any authorized user to select the item, sign in to it and use it as real Private The device, it suddenly got a completely different kind of application than anything else. It’s not even a tablet, nor is it just a smart display It’s an interesting new kind of hybrid mashup that ultimately creates its own class of products – not yet named or defined by any other major technology player.
So back to the questions we asked at the beginning of this thinking: How can Google compete with the iPad in the tablet market right now? And how can one come back now with a new “like an iPad, but with Android” option?
The answer, it may appear, is a large fat “N / A”. All signs point to Google Is not Planning to turn heads with the iPad – or to offer any kind of traditional Android tablet model.
Instead, it seems set to create its own completely new division – where, at least in theory, It is Can set values and then force everyone else to catch up. And regardless of exactly how the Pixel tablet takes shape, it’s clear that Android itself is poised to support similar objectives at the ecosystem level.
All of this will explain why Google’s so confident Android tablets and Chrome OS tablets can harmonize harmoniously and address completely different needs.
One way or another, mark my point: if Google can play its cards right, some really exciting new developments in technology might soon get in our way. And what we see now is almost certainly the tip of the iceberg.
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