Google’s new Android Honeycomb OS would bring new stuff to Android. Honeycomb is primarily targeting Tablets with a new UI/UX, accelerated by Hardware.
As per sources, minimum requirements for Honeycomb would be a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, in order to run properly as per Bobby Cha, managing director of Korean consumer electronics firm Enspert.
This clearly reflects that Honeycomb will be built with dual core processor support, ground up. So, the existing Android tablets will not be (officially) upgradeable to Honeycomb, as most of them run a single core processor. However, few devices like eLocity A7 (cheapest dual core tablet) will get an upgrade.
Google’s plan would be to support Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform as the exclusive chipset, but it would be a matter of time when there will be software ports available for other single core ARM devices, which is of course upto the mercy of Custom ROM developers like Cyanogen, MIUI. Some manufacturers (like samsung) might release non-Tegra2 tablets and will officially bring Honeycomb to those tablets, early on.
Screen Resolution: Processor apart, it would mandate a minimum threshold for the display resolution. 1,280×720 might become the minimum spec for any Honeycomb Tablet. But that doesn’t mean you would not see devices with lower resolution. Someone will definitely still build (Say a 5″ tablet) with lower resolution. Google had demoed Motorola-based Honeycomb tablet-prototype, that device did look to be running at the specified resolution.
Sources also confirm that Google might run two flavors of Tablets in parallel: First (current gen) Cortex-A8 processors and 1,024×600 screens (like Samsung Galaxy Tab) line of Android tablets run the “Froyo” version of Android, and can be updated to Gingerbread, 2.3, but not to Honeycomb.
Another pointer int his direction comes from eLocity (manufacturer of A7),
Hello Tarandeep
Thank you for your interest in the eLocity A7. The A7 will be upgraded to Gingerbread when its made available. As with regard to Honeycomb, we are releasing tablets with a much higher resolution that will support all aspects of Honeycomb in a better way.
Let us know if you have any other question. Thank you once again.
-Team eLocity
So, the minimum requirements for resolution seems obvious.
The good point is that doing so will not create Fragmentation among Android Tablet. Gingerbread supports split Activities, which allow multiple activities to be run at a time, removing the disparity between different screen layouts. Going further, “fragments” API will let apps display multiple views on tablets versus phones. Presumably, that will come to fruition with the next version of Android, codenamed “Ice Cream” – and that name is all we know about that upcoming version.
There will be lots of Honeycomb devices at CES. And if Cha is to be believed, the new OS will probably be ready for manufacturers to install “towards the end of January.” However, there is no official word from Google.
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