LG Electronics delayed its planned Android tablet, according to multiple reports, a move that likely will push the release of a LG tablet into next year.
"We plan to introduce a tablet that runs on the most reliable Android version," an unnamed LG official told Reuters. "We are in talks with Google to decide on the most suitable version for our tablet and that is not Froyo 2.2." Another unnamed LG official told Bloomberg the company plans to debut the tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The company is finished with the hardware, but is fine-tuning the software, the official said.
LG first announced in July plans for an Android 2.2 tablet, and said at the time it would release the device in the fourth quarter.
The tablet delay is the latest setback in LG's mobile efforts. The company sacked its CEO, Nam Yong, last month--and replaced him with Koo Bon-joon, a member of the founding family of the LG conglomerate--amid weak handset sales. The company also brought in a new mobile chief, promoting Park Jong Suk, who had been the head of LG's handset research center.
The decision by LG to push back its tablet plans is interesting because a Google executive said last month that the latest version of Android--Froyo or 2.2--is not optimized for tablets. "But the way Android Market works is it's not going to be available on devices that don't allow applications to run correctly," Hugo Barra, the director of mobile products at Google, told TechRadar. "Which devices do, and which don't, will be unit specific, but Froyo is not optimized for use on tablets. If you want Android Market on that platform, the apps just wouldn't run, [Froyo] is just not designed for that form factor."
Barra hinted that a future version of Android will be optimized for tablets.
Samsung's GalaxyTab tablet runs on Android 2.2. The four Tier 1 U.S. wireless carriers are expected to launch the device by year-end. J.K. Shin, the president of Samsung's mobile communications business, told reporters at the IFA show in Berlin that Samsung will release additional Android tablets next year, including ones running Android 3.5. Samsung also confirmed its GalaxyTab will be upgraded to Android 3.0 in the future.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Reuters article
- see this Electronista post
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