Battle Heats Up for Tablet Market Between Android and Apple Apps

NEWARK, Jan 24 2011



The battle between Android and Apple applications for tablet devices is yet in its infancy. But give it two months, said NJIT’s Tim Kellers, an instructor who’s teaching an on-line course at NJIT in Android apps, and you may see a very different landscape. “There are 300,000 Apple apps available and a device to run them on, the iPad,” said Kellers. “There are only 100,000 Android apps but no real device. That will change dramatically, however, within a few months as Android tablet devices start appearing on the market.”

Kellers, who is available for media interviews (for details call Sheryl Weinstein, 973-596-3436), recently offered the following insights.

Future is bright

Google owns the Android market. People can download Android apps for free since Android is an open source market. The program source code is also free with no licensing fees. Conversely, Apple’s operating system is closed source and Windows operating system is closed source. But Android—based on a Linux kernel and JAVA (also an open source program) is free and will work on any hardware written to run it. Do the math and you’ll see the future.

Here’s an analogy

In Apple’s early days it ruled the market. When Microsoft came along with a system that would run on anyone’s hardware, Apple lost market share. Google’s Android is poised to enter the same position Microsoft had then. The good news is that Android will run on all sorts of hardware: cell phones, GPS applications; word processing applications. It can display video and gaming platforms. It can control server computers by remote applications.

Honeycomb

Yes, there’s been no new device since Apple’s iPad last year. But coming soon is Android 3.0, a code name for a competitive tablet known as Honeycomb able to work on a large format tablet device. Large format tablet devices are seven- inch or larger diagonal screens. The technology is not yet there because Android was not designed to run on tablets; it was designed for smart phones. But smart developers have already adapted the Android operating system to run on a 2.2 system. The NJIT applications to be taught in the new course will use these smaller Android systems.

More Big News

A 3.0 Android operating system for tablets will be on the market Feb. 1. Once the system is released electrical engineers can fine-tune tablets that they’ve begun designing. Expect to see real Android competition to Apple’s iPad on the market around April. Some 3.0 systems in beta are already being tested. Early adopters now can use Samsung’s 2.2 Galaxy pad which runs on an Android system. Kellers advised saving your money, though, until the reviews are in. And, stay tuned for more!

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