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Google Says Honeycomb Will Not Come To Smartphones
tekgoblin writes "Google has officially announced that Honeycomb will not be coming to Android based smartphones. Android 3.0 Honeycomb was specifically made for Tablets according to a Google spokesperson. Although, certain features that are present on Honeycomb will become available over time on Android smartphones. Google has not offered any information to what features will be ported over specifically."
On the bright side, Honeycomb will come with disk-encryption capabilities built in.
They said the same basic thing about Tablets and the pre-Honeycomb versions of Android... ChromeOS was supposed to be for Tablets earlier on- and people went and did Tablets with 1.x and 2.x versions anyway to mostly good results. If there's not anything explicitly keeping it from being useful on phones, SOMEONE will do a phone with it.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I guess that is because
Honeycomb is Big!
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
It's not small!
No, No, No!
At launch the iPad was running a version of iOS (3.2) customized specifically for it, and this version never was released for the iPhone. Furthermore, when Apple released iOS 4, it wasn't compatible with the iPad. It was 7 months before they released 4.2 which was compatible with both. Google could very well be taking the same route here; getting things right on the tablet while continuing to advance the phones, and merging in a later release.
The following is a legit set of questions...
First, are tablet PCs *REALLY* the future of computing? I mean, PADDs were cool on Star Trek and all, but are they really more desirable than either smaller form factor laptops and/or the iPod Touch and its ilk on a grand scale? I realize that not everyone is like me and needs to carry around an 11-pound laptop everywhere, but despite the current iPad/Galaxy Tab craze, is it really likely that tablets will be the de facto laptop replacement in five years?
Second, and more relevant to the topic, what's the major difference at an OS level in Honeycomb that makes it ideal for a tablet that's either 1.) unsuitable for mobile phones, or 2.) optimized for a tablet? I can see things at the application level that could be different (a bleeding obvious example being the Office 2007/2010 Ribbon), and making apps optimized for a tablet sized display would yield different capabilities, the least of which being a little UI scaling so there aren't unnecessary empty areas where additional controls could replace cascading menus,but at the OS level, what kind of tablet optimizations would make the code so radically different from smartphones and iPod Touch clones that it deserves its own fork?
I think this is no different than iOS iPad version, Apple released a different UI than the one used on iPhone, with a lot of different APIs, then later both were merged when iPhone got a new iOS release. So Google saying Honeycomb is not for smartphones means, we need another release to integrate both, that makes sense to me
Looks like Google clarified what they said a bit (original source): http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/03/google-will-not-bring-honeycomb-to-smartphones/
The Director Engineering said as much to TechRadar two weeks ago, so I'm surprised this is news. http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/honeycomb-may-never-come-to-mobiles-922897 So Phones = 2.X, Tablets = 3.X, until Google reunite the number systems. According to the Dev blog post today, they're creating a Fragments API static library for use with phones going down to 1.6. http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/android-30-fragments-api.html so universal apps for tablets and phones can be coded.
no the article is wrong
i think the original article was written for pc magazine and has been rewritten on other sites.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/03/google-will-not-bring-honeycomb-to-smartphones/
UPDATE: It turns out there may have been a bit of confusion surrounding Kovacsâ(TM) comments at the Google event. Google reached out to clarify, supplying BGR with the following statement: âoeThe version of Honeycomb weâ(TM)ve shown is optimized for tablet form factors. All of the UI changes are the future of Android. Yesterdayâ(TM)s event focused on tablet form factors, which is where youâ(TM)ll first see Honeycomb.â
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There are not minor adjustments between the two. Diesel engines lack spark-plugs and are compression ignition, this is totally different than both Otto and Atkinson cycle engines. Dies-Otto does blend the two concepts but it is quite unlike both of its parents.
It seems your knowledge about android is as limited as your knowledge about engines.
The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development
First, are tablet PCs *REALLY* the future of computing?
No, they aren't the future of computing, anymore than any one of servers running could-enabling software, traditional laptops, smartphones and so on is the future of computing.
Like each of those other things, tablets are part of the present of computing that is bound to have a role for quite some time in the future.
is it really likely that tablets will be the de facto laptop replacement in five years?
No, its likely that tablets will replace laptops for some users in 5 years (and, for some, they already have) and that they will fill serve new roles that laptops don't currently serve for other users. The set of niches for computing devices to fill is not fixed with new devices competing over the same limited set of niches. When laptops were introduced, some of them displaced desktops, but more of them opened up new roles.
Second, and more relevant to the topic, what's the major difference at an OS level in Honeycomb that makes it ideal for a tablet that's either 1.) unsuitable for mobile phones, or 2.) optimized for a tablet?
The ActionBar and some other UI changes are pretty much the only tablet specific parts. Other bits may be more resource intensive and not appropriate for current smartphones, but I wouldn't be surprised to see all of the features make it into Android versions targetting phones eventually. (Probably many of the features will come to phones relatively quickly in Ice Cream.)
And this is just Google's official stance.
Or not. As pointed out a couple other places in the thread, Google has since clarified, saying “The version of Honeycomb we’ve shown is optimized for tablet form factors. All of the UI changes are the future of Android. Yesterday’s event focused on tablet form factors, which is where you’ll first see Honeycomb.”
Same reason iOS 3.2 wasn't iOS Tablet 1.0.