The growing number of companies have announced about their intentions to deliver a tablet to the market and realize these plans by the end of the year or at least at the beginning of 2011. Almost all leading mobile platforms ' Android, webOS and Windows should have become suitable for the upcoming gadgets, saying nothing of Apple's iPad. But in reality some platforms seem to be more popular than others. However, why it happens like that is yet unclear.
Windows seemed to be the flagman of the competition. The first Internet tablet in the world should have used that OS, while the first Internet tablet should have been HP's Slate. But as the time is passing by, new partnership and alliances are made changing the most certain things. HP refused to use Windows OS though it seemed to be a closed issue. Both companies demonstrated hearty relations, Microsoft CEO even presented the renowned Slate. But all of a sudden, the friendship was over and HP stated it was not satisfied with the performance provided by Microsoft OS. No doubt, it was a severe blow for Microsoft as HP was really deep in Windows 7 roadmaps and development. But it was not the last straw for mighty Microsoft, so the company continued to sell software for desktops and concentrate on delivering its own smartphone on the base of their own platform.
Several months ago Asus announced that it will deliver to the market a tablet of its own. Asus was going to present two tablet variants - 10-inch and 12-inch on Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Both devices were demonstrated at COMPUTEX 2010 last month. The 10-inch gadget which is now more known to public and netizens as EeePad. It ran Windows CE operating system while the12-inch model had full Windows 7 Home Premium on it. So, it seemed that there was still a chance for Windows to find its place at the mobile market. But several days ago there appeared rumors that Asus had abandoned the platform in favor of the Android OS. Several Asus EeePads were spotted running Android 2.2 Froyo. But if the situation does not change the device will be shipped with Gingerbread as Google is going to update the OS once again at the end of the year.
No doubt, the news is nice especially for Android developers who are getting a new device to deliver apps for. If one remembers another tablet which is coming from Cisco labs at the beginning of the next year, it becomes clear that Android application development process is gathering strength and in a year may easily rival that of the iPhone and the iPad.