As Google looks to the future of Android and the philosophy of tablets at the platform level, you can’t help but be reminded of the past.
11 years ago, Google first shifted its focus towards creating the perfect Android tablet experience. Back in the prehistoric era of 2011, Le Googlé launched its first batch of Android tablets with the introduction of Android 3.0 Honeycomb Software and effort to get developers to work with big screen app interface improvements.
This effort did not last long, to say the least. In about a year, Google – well, you know, google. The company lost focus, pivoted away of seeing it, and finally let the idea of an Android tablet falter without any meaningful move forward or Any real platform-level upgrade.
So when word broke that Google was Make another batch For the world to take Android tablets seriously again, including the ones you target in 2023 Pixel Tablet productIt was hard not to get a certain sense of deja vu — a feeling that, hey, we’ve been down this road before. What can he make? This is amazing What time is different?
It is a valid question. I mean, well, Android tablets had a beast of time to crack and gain any meaningful traction 11 years ago. And in the more than a decade since, Apple has just strengthen its position As the de facto standard for business tablets. How can I go back right Now With the option “Like an iPad, but with Android” does it matter?
The answer, it turns out, may be true under our pessimistic noses. The short version is that Google may not do that Attempt To compete directly with the iPad in the general tablet market in this round. Alternatively, it may look to create a file Category One of the devices he can own on his own.
And the ramifications for us just high-tech humans could be enormous.
Pixel Tablet Puzzle
At this point in the technology development timeline, one thing is impossible to deny: coming up with a new competitor to the iPad in 2022 for sure. sound Like a fool’s job.
Sure, for someone like me Someone has found Apple’s approach to software design and ecosystem control completely single – offering a compelling option “like an iPad, but with Android” might suffice. But for the more mainstream tablet-buying crowd, you need something more important to get anyone considering a device that (a) doesn’t just compete on price (hello, Amazon Fire!) and (b) doesn’t boast a different operating system as a key point of differentiation.
Enter the Pixel Tablet.
The Google Google’s still-mysterious return to tablets caught most of us when it appeared in a Google I/O ad last week. And a lot of people were knocking on the tablet which is still in an early stage of development due to its thick appearance and somewhat plain appearance.
The tablet shown by Google certainly doesn’t look like your usual premium tablet of 2022. It does appear to be on the thicker side, and its edges either remind of a more budget-level design or a tablet from several years ago.
The Google Interestingly, it’s not very similar to the Pixel in terms of design language or overall appearance. However, Google has been clear about the fact that it’s an entire Pixel product — and it’s way too much intends to put it As an excellent device.
Outwardly, at least, something does not seem to be piling up. But as with so many things about Google, there may be more to this story than we see in that more visible outer layer.
It is considered:
- The Google rumored to be Working on a new Nest-Hub that features a detachable screen — a screen that can be pulled out of the base and used as a tablet, in some capacity.
- We know Android 13 has Lots of new items Which suggests that Google’s cooker is arriving at a whole new class of multi-purpose devices that include a dock along those same lines. Apart from improving the interface, we see a lot of elements related to the transformation of the tablet in a common surfacewith custom widgets and screensaver-like widgets approved for use in docked mode by anyone – sort of like an improved and more useful version of The concept of smart screens today. And all this will be accompanied by an expanded, multi-user profile system reaffirmed, making it easy for any authorized user to choose such a device and get into their personal items.
- Official images of the Pixel Tablet that Google shared at I/O appear to show connectors on the back of the device — specifically, the exact type of pogo-pin-style connectors that allow the device to connect to a dock simply by making a connection in the correct area.
The Google - Remember what we said a second ago about the Pixel Tablet that doesn’t have much of the typical Pixel design language? it’s the truth. But you know what kind of machine design language Do You have? nest. Look at the picture again. It looks just like what you’d expect from a Nest Hub without a base.
The Google So with the caveat that we’re doing a lot of connecting the dots here, it seems like all the pieces definitely add up and point to one consistent conclusion. And sure, it seems plausible that the Pixel Tablet could somehow relate to the detachable Nest Hub concept or at least have a similar purpose, but it ends up getting branded (ahem – Look at that eyebrow raised).
And that, my dear, brings us back to our central question of how and why, exactly, Android tablets can matter today.
The purpose of the Pixel Tablet
Using the Pixel Tablet as an example of the kind of use case Google seems to be envisioning for the Android tablet in the future, what we’re seeing is really not a tablet in any traditional sense. It’s more than just a smart screen booster also Offers some personal computing capabilities.
If the next-generation Android tablet model revolves around a common display surface, it will essentially become a home or office main center, first and foremost – a way for anyone to see key information and contextual intelligence meant for public consumption. It is also meant to play a pivotal role in controlling the connected device – thermostats, smart lights and other home and/or office appliances.
Unlike today’s smart screens, the ultimate ambition of this product appears to be to provide a fully customizable and informative environment in this vertical model – one that is easy to see as useful and opens a lot of interesting doors both on the front of the home and in work environments.
Once you consider the ability of any authorized user to choose, log in, and use the thing as an actual thing Personal device, it suddenly got a completely different kind of oomph than anything else out there. It’s not nearly a tablet, per se, nor is it exactly a smart screen. It’s an interesting kind of new hybrid blend that is eventually creating its own product category – a product that hasn’t been named or identified by any other major technology player.
Back to the questions we asked at the beginning of this reflection: How can Google compete with the iPad in the tablet market at this point? And how can you come back now with an important new “Like iPad, but with Android” option?
It seems that the answer may be “not available”. All tags suggest google no Planning to go head-to-head with the iPad – or to offer any kind of traditional Android tablet model.
Instead, it appears to be set to create its entirely new class – a class where, at least in theory, He. She It can set the standard and then force everyone else to catch up. Regardless of exactly how the Pixel Tablet is formed, it’s clear that Android itself is also set up to support this kind of purpose at the ecosystem level.
All of this would also explain why Google is so trusted Android tablets and Chrome OS tablets can coexist harmoniously and meet completely different needs.
One way or another, put my words: if Google plays its cards right, it’s possible that some really interesting new things in technology are coming our way soon. What we see now is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg.
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