Android 4 - And the end of the tablet app

Andy Rubin at AsiaD

When Andy Rubin at the Asian All Things D conference told Walt Mossberg that “I don’t think that there should be apps specifically for tablets”, I seriously wondered if he really had a grip on the tablet business. It started looking strange already earlier that day, when Google and Samsung showed of the Nexus Prime Galaxy Nexus and Android 4. I know that the presentation was planned together with Samsung and what they were showing was a phone, but at the same time Google was showing off Android 4, the Android version that was to pull Gingerbread and Honeycomb together, and there was no mention of any tablet functions or apps. I wonder about this a little more in my post, Google Android 4 - A bit of a cold shower.


Thinking a bit more about it over the weekend I started to think that Andy maybe did get it after all, and that his vision of how a mobile OS should be, could be the very right thing. If I’m right about where Google is taking Android, it will also explain why they seemed to avoid answering questions about tablets. Here is how I see it.


The OS has to make sure that it will run one any type of device, it being a phone with a QVGA screen or a tablet with full HD resolution. It has to make sure that the UI works on every screen size from 2.5” all the way up to 10.1” or more. The OS has to be written in a way so the developer can just build an app and it will run on all the above mentioned platforms. In other words, Android makes sure that all apps work on both phones and tablets, and that freedom is not found on any other platform out there.


So does that mean that we will never see a tablet app ever again on Android? Nope, but you will not find the app under the HD section in Android Market. There is only one version of any app, but the app can choose to work differently depending on screen size and resolution. I’m not a developer, so I cannot be sure, but I’ll bet that there in the Android 4 SDK is a way to find out the resolution and screen size of the unit running you app. That way Google puts the design choice in the hands of the developer and do not try to force any hands. This also makes sure that hardware designs can be very flexible, and the company building a device can be free to setup screen size and resolution any way they want it. All this freedom will seem a little daunting to start with, but when developers find out that they need only manage one source code for all Android devices I’m sure that we will start to see apps that work very differently on phones and tablets.


If I’m right you will never have to worry about an app being tablet compatible, or if you will have to buy your favorite app again in a tablet version if you buy yourself an Android tablet. I hope I’m right and I hope that we will see Google show the way for other developers by updating all there apps so they react according to screen size and resolution. Andy you said it you self, there is no need for tablet specific apps, and I agree, but there is a need for apps to change depending on screen size and screen resolution. Google please start updating.


Back in June I looked at Android as a tablet OS and concluded that it was not ready. The post is in Danish, but here is a Google Translation, Status on Android as a Tablet OS.