Samsung says Honeycomb is post-Gingerbread Android

Samsung in a brief talk on Thursday both confirmed a future Android codename and hinted at its tablet focus. In confirming that it hoped to upgrade the Galaxy Tab to Android 3.0, nicknamed Gingerbread, product planning lead WP Hong told TechRadar the next version would be Honeycomb. He claimed it would be "specifically optimised" for a different tablet besides one like the seven-inch Galaxy but wouldn't provide much more detail.

Hong did say that he expected the Honeycomb model to arrive sometime in 2011, followed by a "portfolio" of new models in 2012. The Galaxy tab wouldn't move to Honeycomb, however.

The mentions are the first signs that Google is consciously working to refine Android for tablets. Android tablets just getting their public debuts today, including both the Galaxy Tab and the Toshiba Folio 100, only have tablet-size apps through work on the part of their own creators. Most other apps either scale automatically without accommodating a tablet interface or else break entirely.

Apple's early success with the iPad so far has been attributed to its willingness to optimize iOS for a larger screen and to encourage native apps. Without a similar effort for Android, Google has been forced to watch Apple get a near-monopoly on the market for the past several months.

By Electronista Staff

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