Google Says Honeycomb Will Not Come To Smartphones 193
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.
Heh... Riiight... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Fragmentation (Score:4, Insightful)
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
Re:Apple can do it... (Score:2, Insightful)
Your analogy is flawed. The workings of a diesel & petrol engine are essentially the same, just some minor adjustments between them. They still work on the same principles (combustion, rotating crank, pistons, etc).
iOS has a foundation that can move between phone & tablet, the UI is what changes. If Android cannot do this, then there's something wrong in the world of google. This is pretty much the final proof everyone needed that Android is massively fragmented.
Re:Okay, can someone please break it down for me? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't extrapolate too much -- computing seems to be finally diversifying, and making the assumption that $latest_new_thing is somehow generally the best solution for most people in most cases is ... probably over-eager. Don't get me wrong, I realize Ipad is awesome for you and millions of other people: I just don't see any evidence to support the claim that they are the "future of computing for most users"
The future of computing (Score:4, Insightful)
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.)
Re:Apple can do it... (Score:0, Insightful)
I modded you troll based on your sig. It makes you sound arrogant and mean.
Just thought I should tell you.
Re:What? (Score:4, Insightful)