Tablet PC's Getting Ready for Android 3.0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Android 3.0 aka Gingerbread, is advancing in its development and appears to be on target for an October release. Android 3.0 is expected to have a more intuitive interface and support upcoming services like Google Music.

According to Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, Android 3.0 will be the heart of Motorola's 10 inch tablet design that's expected to ship in November and come preloaded with the new OS. Motorola is also responsible for some of the most successful Android-based smartphones, including the Droid and DroidX.

Motorola has not yet formally announced such a tablet but did provide some hardware info on a 7-inch tablet running Android at CES 2010. Motorola has developed a partnership with Verizon Wireless and it’s expected that Verizon will market and sell Motorola’s 10-inch tablet bundled with their data plans. Verizon has not made any official announcement as to if and when this will happen.

Samsung is another manufacture that will be releasing the Galaxy tablet which may be the first genuine iPad competitor. Samsung's tablet will be running Android 2.2 on a 1.2 GHz A8 processor, with a Super AMOLED screen, 16 GB of internal storage and 32 GB MicroSD expansion. Samsung's TouchWIZ user interface may be used but has not been confirmed.

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Samsung has invited CrunchGear and other technical press to an August 11 event. The company will celebrate a new dimension of Wonder with their new products and announcements.

LG has confirmed that they will be releasing their own iPad contender powered with Google's Android OS in the fourth quarter this year. Android 3.0 is the most likely version that will be used on LG’s Optimus tablet that is expected to run at least a 1 GHz processor and a minimum of 512 MB of RAM. LG has not released any details on their hardware specifications.

Whether Google's Android OS will give manufactures the edge in designing smartphones and tablet PC's that can strongly compete with Apple’s iPhone and iPad has yet to be seen; Apple has been the innovative leader in the iPhone and iPad. Google’s developers will need to stay a step ahead of Apple by determining the future of this technology and what consumers want. One issue that needs to be addressed by Apple and Google is their OS security and better screening of 3rd party apps.

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