Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at Nvidia, just gave Android a wet, sloppy kiss, as he said hardware makers are uniting behind the Google-backed operating system for tablets.
During the Computex show, Nvidia’s leader said Windows is “too big” for tablets and smartbooks and that Android is evolving enough to make it an ideal platform for these devices. Additionally, he said that little green robot has already “gained a tremendous amount of momentum all over the world.”
“Andy Rubin and his team [at Google] know exactly where the industry needs to go,” Huang said, according to PC World. “Android started out as a phone but it’s not lost on them that the tablet is going to be very important and that the Android operating system has to evolve, and be enhanced in certain capabilities, in order to be a good tablet operating system.”
Tablets are still a niche market compared to phones, laptops and desktop computers but there are signs that this segment is poised to take off. Apple’s iPad has sold more than 2 million units in less than 60 days and it is well on its way to generating $1 billion in revenue in a single quarter. There are even strong indications that Google is working on its own tablet that will be launched with Verizon Wireless before the end of the year.
Tablets are still occupying an odd space: too big to be as portable as a phone and not full-featured enough to be a netbook replacement. As the hardware and Internet matures, I believe that tablets can be a powerful terminal into the cloud and it could replace a laptop in the not-too-distant future. One of the major disappointments about the iPad is that it’s not as great of a cloud device as it should be. I mean, you have to plug it in to a computer to even get started.
We’re not going to have to worry about that with Android tablets, particularly if one comes directly from Google. During its I/O conference, the search giant showed us the future of Android and it looks very cool, especially if you’re not a fan of wires. There’s the new API in Android 2.2 which will share information from the web directly to your device, in the proper app. Future versions of Android Market will be able to push app installations to the device over the air and I can’t wait to utilize the streaming music capabilities that Google acquired with Simplify Media.
[Via PC World]