Ice Cream Sandwich will not save Android tablets

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There was a glaring omission at the Samsung/Google event last night: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) was not shown on a tablet device. This omission was purposeful, because ICS will not thrust Android-powered tablets into a head-to-head competition with the iPad, and because we have seen ICS on tablets already. One could name this latest release Honeycomb 2.0 for tablet devices. Apple is not afraid of the what was announced last night, nor is it even paying attention when it comes to the iPad 2 losing market share.
The simple fact of the matter is that the iPad completely dominates the tablet market. Android is not even a blip on the radar when it comes to this market segment. The iPad 2 is predicted to outsell Android based tablets by a ratio of almost 10 to 1. Andy Rubin, head of Google’s mobile division, made a statement this morning that there are roughly 6 million Android tablets in the wild. While that number sounds large, projections are putting Cupertino’s second version of it’s iPad at 65 million sold in 2011 alone. Android may be dominating the smartphone market in sales (and that is due to sheer numbers of devices, not due to market demand), but it is certainly not controlling any theater in the tablet wars.
There are many reasons why tablets running the Android OS have flopped: Pricing, lack of applications made for Honeycomb, and market saturation. Verizon and Motorola ruined the best chance at competing with Apple when they launched the horrendously- priced Xoom. At $899, it was ridiculous to think that consumers were going to flock to Verizon stores to pick one up. Pay that much for a tablet then tack on a pricey data plan on top of that? Complete insanity. Sure, fanboys and Android geeks went and bought it because it was the first viable Android tablet hardware that could actually do something. Everyday consumers were putting a Xoom next to an iPad and shaking their heads at the fact that the iPad was a known product, whereas the Xoom was this archaic piece of tech that cost more than a souped up desktop computer! Who can blame them? A huge opportunity was lost to come out of the gate with the iPad clearly in the sights as far as competition was concerned. Every Android manufacturer would benefit! Come out with a strong initial showing that really gives the normal consumer an alternative to the iPad, and you have a ballgame. So disappointing.
On the other end of the spectrum, because Android is open, companies are free to create no-name devices with the OS slapped onto them, then shipped for rock-bottom prices. When a consumer sees a tablet at Walgreens for $99, it is going to create doubt in their mind of the veracity of the product. This erodes consumer confidence since they assume these low-priced tablets are an iPad knock-offs, and in the long run these poor excuses for hardware hurt the Android brand recognition as people place relate it to junk toys rather than serious hardware.

Michael Dell, really?

The failure of Android tablet sales is being noticed by major players in the electronics industry as well. Michael Dell, of Dell computers, recently reversed his controversial statement saying that Apple should close up shop due to the fact that Android was going to blow it out of the water in the tablet market. At Dell World 2011 he stated that his company is now looking to Windows to help grow profit share, since sales of Android devices have not been up to expectations. He now likens Android to “another opportunity,” and has obviously lost confidence in Android’s ability to move specialty products produced by Dell. This is a strong indicator of the state of affairs and perception for Android-based tablets.
The lack of a presentation of ICS running on a tablet device during last night’s announcement was troubling in the fact that Google has hyped this release as a major step in unifying the platform. If this is the case, why not show it off alongside the Galaxy Nexus? Why not come come out all guns blazing, showing potential developers that Google means business when it comes to resolving the problems that plague its mobile platform? The reason is not known of course, but it sends a negative signal to consumers and developers alike that there was no tablet to be seen last night.

Honeycomb 2.0

The reason why there was no announcement, and ultimately why ICS will not boost Android tablet sales, is that on a tablet device it is simply Honeycomb 2.0. It brings the feature set that Google placed on tablet devices six months ago, and adds some new hotness with Face Unlock, panoramic pictures, and an updated font. There are more additions of course, but the fact remains that tablet users have already seen much of ICS before: it is already in their hands. Why rush out to buy another tablet that will ship with 4.0? Especially when the Android developer community will most likely create custom ROMs that can be installed on the tablet they already own.
No, Apple has a firm grip on the tablet market that will not be relinquished anytime soon. There simply are simply no strong competitors out there at the moment — except perhaps for the Kindle Fire, which could do very well indeed, but can the two be compared? The iPad 2 exudes pure sexiness, it is the device to have and be seen with. Holiday sales are almost guaranteed for retailers that stock the iPad. The hype surrounding anything that Cupertino releases is huge. One does not hear that kind of energy in the general public around Android; it is sadly relegated to people who are intimately involved with the platform, and that is a relatively small circle when comparing it to the Apple customer base.
Google should be celebrating the fact that 4.0 is going to sell more handsets — there are some great features that consumers are going to want, for sure — but on the other hand, it should be mourning the fact that it is losing the tablet wars, and badly. Android consumers and fans alike should be shouting at Mountain View to get on the ball and get serious about tablet devices, because until that happens, it is going to be a black turtleneck-driven world in the land of tablet electronics.

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