Ask any self professed geek today and he will tell you it is impossible to survive without an Android Tablet. They make their ubiquitous presence felt everywhere strongly. The retail stores worldwide have been flooded with Android Tablets so much that the older net books have almost disappeared altogether. Although it feels as though an Android Tablet has been a part of your life forever, in the trail of computer history it made its appearance very recently.

Prior to the launch of Android tablet, Microsoft came up with a similar concept called tablet computer. It was born out of the thought that computers needed to be portable. It stood out as a cross between a computer and a mobile. It also incorporated the touch screen feature within the user interface. Touch screens were primarily operated by a stylus or virtual keyboard thereby overriding the need for a physical keyboard. Although the idea was great, the product had not been marketed properly. The high price and other usability concerns tiled the balance negatively in favor of the tablet computer. As a consequence it was deemed a failure and never saw the light of commercial success.

Basically, Android is an operating system based on Linux. Android Inc, which was home to the developers of Android operating system, existed as an independent company that was later on acquired by Google. Google acquired several other hardware and software firms and founded the Open Handset Alliance which can truly be called the father of the Android tablet. It is here that the prototype of the initial Android Tablet took seed. With these acquisitions Google made a grand entry into the world of tablets.

Android Tablet – A Take on the Operating System

The Android Tablet has been built on Android operating system which is Linux based. It is open source software which implies that the source code is open to public. This model of software was developed with the view that the operating system can be enhanced further with inputs from the community of developers worldwide. The masterpiece that the android is today is a result of the efforts of thousands of developers across the globe and it is a tall testimony to the future of open source.

Android Tablet is an area of stronghold for the techies. The developers write applications which are popularly known as ‘apps’ in the tech world. These apps are then made available on websites for buyers to download. Apps are like small software that extend the usability of the Android Tablet. Some apps are free of cost while others demand a subscription fee.

Being an open source system it is out there in the public domain for the interested to create apps. All the popular magazines such as PC world carry articles on the widgets and APIs that Android possesses. So any geek can create apps for himself on Android Tablet and the icing on the cake is that he can market it as well.

Android operating system has seen several versions of it released. The journey began with Android 1.0 in 2007 and has ended in Ice cream Sandwich as of today. Interestingly operating systems on Android tablets derive their name from popular dessert items that are arranged in alphabetical order. So from beta it moved on to Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Honeycomb, Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich. This is a truly delightful naming tradition indeed.

Android Tablet – User Interface Features

Like most of the tablets in market today, an Android tablet utilizes capacitive screens to enable users to operate the touch screens with their fingers. This does away with the clumsy stylus or a digital pen which was a must need in the older touch devices. There are various virtual keyboards available to the users of the Android tablet.

There are mainly three types of virtual keyboards available for an Android tablet. First is the QWERTY keyboard with a simulator button to bring up the symbols and numbers. This is the most widely used keyboard. Next is the predictive texting keyboard. In this type of keyboard, a bar appears on top of your Android tablet predicting the word you are typing using artificial intelligence. It is a keyboard exclusively for the lazy types. Third version of keyboard for an Android tablet is the Swipe or Slide model where you need to slide across several letters to form a word.

The Android Tablet also has the multi-touch facility enabled in it. This means that the screen on your Android Tablet can recognize multiple touch points. So when you touch the two edges of your photo on your Android Tablet the touch points are identified by the screen allowing you to expand or minimize the photo using your fingers. Yet another enticing feature of an Android Tablets is the accelerometer that makes the device sensitive to motion. In short, giant strides have been taken in user interface section to create a fulfilling experience for the Android Tablet user.

Android Tablet – Salient Features

The Android Tablet has certain noteworthy features that set it apart from most of its counterparts and Apple in particular.

The biggest point of difference between the two is admittedly open source. The Android operating system is available to any of the software giants to develop and customize an Android Tablet. There are millions of Android apps developers who earn their living from creating the Android apps. Android market is the official website created by Google where all its apps are published. Google is magnanimous enough to hosts apps developed by other third parties as well on its website.

On the other hand Apple is the sole proprietor of its devices. The whole product comes as a package at a handsome cost. There is no provision for customization and the source code is zealously guarded. You simply need to lap up whatever Apple offers.

Next on the list of differences is price. An Android tablet is available in all ranges of price as there are multiple companies creating them for different target population. Alternatively, Apple’s iPad can be viewed as bit more of an elitist coming at 500 dollar plus. Although the Apple Store boasts of a rich collection of apps, they come at a healthy price. In comparison the apps on Android Store are free and we are likely to see the numbers growing with the labors of developers everywhere.

When it comes to design, iPad is mostly ahead of the pack with extremely sleek and stylish design. It could take a few years for the others to catch up.

All the programs on iPad have to be accessed via iTunes or other programs on it whereas the Android Tablet offers an experience that is more akin to desktop performance. Multitasking is also an enjoyable feature on Android tablets that is missing on the iPad.

Android Tablet – A Comparison of the Best Available Devices

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is generally considered to be the best available Android Tablet today. It is extremely sleek and light on the hands too. It is available in two colors, Champagne Gold ((silver and gold) and Amethyst Gray (purple and grey). It is water and fingerprint resistant. The device comes preinstalled with the Honeycomb 3.2 operating system but it can be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich which is the latest operating system available in an Android Tablet. It works on Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU making it extremely fast and also gives it excellent battery life. The 8 mega pixel camera on this device is supposed to be the best in the field of tablets allowing you to capture the details of your precious moments with maximum clarity.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a very popular Android Tablet. It works on Honeycomb operating system. On thickness aspect it compares favorably with iPad 2 and on the weight front it scores higher than the iPad. It has a rich set of apps deployed in it as well. On the design facet Samsung Galaxy Tab lags behind slightly. It has a plastic back leaving it feeling less solid. The lack of ports also rates as a major drawback. It has a back and front camera making it easy for video chats. It also has a set of powerful speakers. Apart from the usual range of Apps from Android Market, the Samsung Galaxy Tab also provides a variety of apps from Samsung’s own app store.

The Sony Tablet S arrived late on the scenes of Android Tablets. The tablet has a wedge like shape giving the user a solid grip on the device and makes it considerably easy to handle. The Sony Tablet S effectively puts together a rather pragmatic design. The screen is adequately bright and the availability of Sony Book Reader along with Amazon’s Kindle makes it a hot choice for a book lover. Also the Sony Tablet S has PlayStation certification. This is a dream come true for all the gaming freaks who can use this device to download and play classic PlayStation games.

The Asus Eee Pad Slider SL101 is a classic model of an Android Tablet. For consumers who are in search of an Android Tablet that combines the feel of a tablet touch screen and also provides the ease of QWERTY keyboard, the Asus Eee Pad Slider is a befitting answer. The user interface is set up on capacitive screens that are easy to use. Though it has front and rear camera enabling video chatting, night time photography can be a problem due to the lack of flash in rear camera.

The Future of Android Tablet

It looks as though Android 3.0 will power the future of the Android Tablet in the coming years. Motorola and Notion Ink are two companies that have already declared publicly about the decision to formally move to Android 3.0. Android 3.0 have a firm set of least requirements for the hardware such as; 512 MB of RAM, 1 GHZ CPU and a display screen better than 3.5 inches. It also gives an increase to the resolution, with a scale up to 1280 X 760 pixels. It is also proposing to create a uniform operating system which would make all devices that are built on Android 3.0 to be compliant with apps that are developed. This is a boon for all the independent apps developers.

Even though Android enjoys the distinct advantages of being open source, there is also a problem of overcrowding. The market is flooded with Android Tablets. Every company is scrambling to create an Android Tablet and as a result of this infighting the market for the Android Tablet is slowing down. Critics argue that this the reason why Apple will continue to rule over the market for tablets for a long time.

Apple holds the major market share in the tablet business but, Android tablets are slowly but steadily inching the gap. Reportedly the Android tablet held 27 percent of worldwide share in the last quarter of 2011 and with the influx of the new Ice cream Sandwich operating system and the expected slew of tablets, this share of markets is expected to grow steadily. Nevertheless, the Android Tablet has a long way to go before catching up with Apple’s lion share of over 60 percent of the market.

The Consumer Electronic Show 2011 was predominantly focusing on Android Tablets but the energy sort of fizzled out by the end of the year and IPad retained its top spot. The CES 2012 is slated to happen next week and we will know the plans of major companies in the Android Tablet arena then. Samsung is expected to launch Galaxy Note in this show along with Samsung Galaxy tab upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Asus is anticipated to launch its 3D Memo and Padfone along with Eee Pad Transformer line of tablets.

The race is effectively between two competitors namely Apple and Android. In the interest of the growing population of tablet users let us hope that this competition propels everyone to work harder and create truly enhanced tablets. The fate of the Android Tablet in the coming years is a game that will be worth watching and hopefully it is all set to transform our lives for the better.