Android Multi-Touch tablet prototype

Zedomax blog has a preview of an Android tablet running Android at the Adobe exhibit at Web 2.0. Although the preview shows off a lot of the functions (including the ability to run Flash and Air applications on the tablet), there are two distinct disadvantages for an Android/Flash tablet:

  1. The number of apps available for Android versus the iPad
    Currently Apple has more than 180,000 apps, versus Android about 50,000 apps. I hate to quote Balmer, but "Developers! Developers! Developers!". If I have a platform where the 1 millionth device just shipped, versus a new platform, I'd go with the 1 million device user base.
  2. The different user interface a (touch) tablet requires versus a mouse drive app.
    Examples of this are hover functions, double-click, etc., which have to be redesigned for a touch interface.
One of the big advantages would be the ability to put an app on an Android tablet without having to go through a vetting process at Apple that is less than transparent. Also, chances are the device will be cheaper, based on Google';s philosophy that the more people use the web, the better it is for Google.
I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the year to see what the Android tablet will look like, how much it will cost, and how it will perform.
Written on May 12, 2010