Motorola to Launch Android 3.0 Tablet in January; May Run on Verizon's LTE Network

If the year 2009 was the year of Netbook, 2010 can be called the year of tablet PCs. The launch of Apple iPad turned around this market, with technology companies of all sizes jumping on to the tablet bandwagon.

From Acer to Asus, Samsung to LG, Sony to HP, everyone is readying an iPad rival and the operating system generally being adopted is Google's Android. Samsung has recently launched Galaxy Tab using the Android 2.2 operating system but can be upgraded to the Android 3.0.

Now, it is time for Motorola to launch its own tablet on Android platform.

Motorola (MOT) is expected to launch the new Android 3.0 based Tablet at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January and will probably be the first Tablet to run on Verizon's LTE (4G) network.

Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology promises wireless Internet connections that are as fast as land-based cable modems or fiber optic technology and offer high-speed broadband and high-end multimedia services.

Verizon has been already selling several Motorola smartphones, including the Droid lineup of Droid X and Droid 2.

Meanwhile, Motorola has been currently making only phones based on Google's Android operating system. Now, its tablet is also on Android and more likely, the carrier will be Verizon.

Motorola Tablet, which is expected to have a strong customer adoption, will run on Honeycomb (Android 3.0). This version can support resolution of 1280 x 800 Pixels and hence can easily support tablet of about 10 inch size, analyst Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research wrote in a note to clients.

Earlier Android versions, till GingerBread (Android 2.3), have had the screen resolution limitation that prevented Android from being a solution for Tablets. Till Gingerbread (Android 2.3), Android OS has the maximum screen resolution of 1024 x 600 Pixels and that makes it suited for only screen sizes of 7 inch or less.

With the latest Android version, Google has solved that issue.

In addition, Motorola Tablet will run on Nvidia's Tegra 2, 1GHz Dual-Core chip and will support the latest Google's Geo-platform, which has more 300 API's and supports HTML5 based Scalar Vector Graphics (SVG). API, an abbreviation of application program interface, is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.

Moreover, speculations are rife that Motorola could name its upcoming tablet as XOOM, as said by several market reports citing the company's trdemark filings for the word XOOM. Apart from U.S., Motorola have filed for the word XOOM in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Apps Factor

Chowdhry said that developers are increasingly using Motorola's MotoDev Developer Tools to create Android applications and developers feel they can make money by creating applications for Motorola's Tablet, which uses Google G-Market. Google's G-Market supports both Direct as well as Indirect Monetization for App Developer that include advertising, affiliated marketing and referrals.

Developers seem to be gravitating more towards Indirect Monetization on Motorola's Tablet Applications, Chowdhry wrote in a note to clients.

Also, converged view indicates that probably within next 12 months Motorola may launch 3 different Tablets, including one ruggedized tablet and probably in October 2011, a Tablet with sliding physical keyboard based on IceCream which will probably be Android 3.2 (The next version of Android after Honeycomb).

Meanwhile, the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is expected to take place between Jan. 6 to Jan. 9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. The event, which is touted as the world's largest consumer electronics show and held each year, hosts previews of products and new product announcements.

The most awaited launches this year are RIM's launch of their iPad rival 'Playbook', Sony's Google TV offerings and Sony Playstation Phone Zeus Z1 with Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread.