ie8 fix

Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Google's Rubin demos next-gen Android tablet: Will it live up to advance billing?

By | December 7, 2010, 2:19am PST

Summary: Speaking at the D: Dive into Mobile conference, Rubin demo-ed a Motorola tablet running Honeycomb, a version of Android due next year. Honeycomb is supposed to be the Android version that will give tablets more iPad fighting power.

With the latest round of Android tablets being so-so at best, Google partners Nvidia and Motorola have smartly foreshadowed what’s on deck with next-gen tablets. Google’s mobile chief Andy Rubin gave folks a little taste of what those next-gen Android tablets will look like.

Speaking at the D: Dive into Mobile conference, Rubin demo-ed a Motorola tablet running Honeycomb, a version of Android due next year. Honeycomb is supposed to be the Android version that will give tablets more iPad fighting power.

Like most demos, Rubin’s looked good. The tablet showed off pinch and zoom, email and performance gains due to a dual-core Nvidia chip. The button-free tablet “won’t be out for a while,” said Rubin.

The thing to note about Rubin’s demo is the build-up.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang recently praised Rubin’s team and said they are working on something “magical” that can compete with the iPad.

Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said tablets are going to be a big factor for the company. Motorola’s competition is likely to be Apple, HTC and Samsung. Note how PC makers took a back seat.

The big question is whether these next-gen tablets will compete well with Apple’s iPad. There were some key features of the tablet such as a mini-bar for navigation.

Here’s the demo so you can judge for yourself.

Related:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

16
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Google's Rubin demos next-gen Android tablet: Will it live up to advance billing?
birumut Updated - 19th Jun
Well done! Thank you very much for professional templates and community edition
sesli sohbet sesli chat
0 Votes
+ -
I seen nothing
NoAxToGrind 7th Dec 2010
Watched the demo seen nothing that beats or betters the competition.
@NoAxToGrind : Price maybe?

If it has at least what the competition has but costs less, why not?
0 Votes
+ -
More vaporware
trickytom3 7th Dec 2010
I have a magical tablet coming out, too. It really is something; it's only 2mm thick, weighs 1.3 ounces, and you can fold it half. It has a built-in LCD projector and projected-keyboard...plus, it only costs $3.99! Of course, its still in development, so these features may change. Expect to see it in stores around 2015.

STOP SELLING US YOUR FANTASIES and build the thing! When exactly are these wonderful iPad-killers going to emerge? I'm tired of ass*oles standing on a stage, telling me what marvelous products they're going to build "someday".

When I can hold it in my hand and buy it for $399 with a decent 4G data plan, I'll be excited..until then, go f*ck yourself.
0 Votes
+ -
So...
dragosani 7th Dec 2010
@trickytom3

were is your working prototype?

I see a functional prototype unit that has been built in the video.
0 Votes
+ -
Funny. When Ballmer had a working W7 tablet onstage
John Zern Updated - 7th Dec 2010
everyone cried "vaporware", so why is this difference.

Anyone can build a prototype, the real trick is delivering on your claim on a production scale (where price/cost comes in)
0 Votes
+ -
Oh Please!
dragosani 7th Dec 2010
@John Zern

Like the hardware is something exceptional that can't be scaled up. The Android OS has been proven time and time again on smartphones to run in constrained hardware in the "real world". Windows 7 has never passed that kind of test. That was a pure Apples and Oranges comparison.
0 Votes
+ -
@dragosani, cone on now
John Zern 7th Dec 2010
Like the hardware is something exceptional that can't be scaled up. The Windows 7 OS has been proven time and time again on netbooks to run in constrained hardware in the "real world". Windows 7 passed that kind of test.

It's no big deal to remove the keyboard from a netbook and now you have a Slate! Or are you forgetting that Windows has run on tablet PC's for the past 15 years?
0 Votes
+ -
Sigh...
dragosani 7th Dec 2010
@John Zern

You mentioned Windows 7 and may some weird time warp has happened but Windows 7 hasn't been on any kind of tablet for 15 years. I want to see you point to a tablet device with constrained hardware like the Android can run on.

Sure Windows of various flavors have been on tablets but not like the small and constrained varieties we are seeing with iOS or Android.

Please let me know about a Windows 7 tablet/netbook that doesn't use a power hungry x86 processor (usually Intel Atom). Until then it is just an Apples to Oranges comparison.
0 Votes
+ -
Great post Tricky
CowLauncher 7th Dec 2010
Someone had to say it.
@trickytom3
Samsung Galaxy, Archos - 7
0 Votes
+ -
it works
wessonjoe 9th Dec 2010
@trickytom3
try the touchbook or smartbook from AlwaysInnovating.
they have been shipping for a few months now.
it's not the kind of mass product crApple or the others output.
but the open alliance has generated a nice hardware design and these guys do a nice job with it.

happy
.
0 Votes
+ -
Great Job
aalvarez15 7th Dec 2010
I still think that the iPad it's a wonderfull product and maybe this Motorola it's not getting to that level, but....there are another reasons for thinking that iPad could have more fight in the future. Android and Blackberry Os are programmed in java, it's a language more popular than objective C and apple is very close, that's not an advantage.
Looks like it will be very good. Showing things like this makes people stop and think. It freezes the market to some degree. I still don't want one (I can control myself at least until they are actually available). I think they will need to get the price WAY down (especially from $10,000 as he says in the video!). I think these kinds of device can be produced for very little money - the same price as the worst Android ereader should be able to get you one of these.
Rubin demoed 3D Google Maps and an email application on this prototype tablet.

The speed of the 3D map rendering was pretty impressive.

The email application gave me the impression that Rubin showed an iPad to his design engineers, opened the iPad's email app and then said, "Copy this email app EXACTLY and make it work on an Android tablet." Apparently, the software engineers did just that.
0 Votes
+ -
My Take
hoaxoner 7th Dec 2010
Once the big boy manufacturers get involved in this, and from all accounts, Samsung's tablet, albeit expensive etc., is a pretty nice device; however, once Moto, HTC, etc. get in the game, it will get very interesting.
Well done! Thank you very much for professional templates and community edition
sesli sohbet sesli chat

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix