Android 3.0 Honeycomb Won’t Be Coming To A Smartphone Near You, Just For Tablets, Says Google ~ GoAndroid

Friday, February 4, 2011

Android 3.0 Honeycomb Won’t Be Coming To A Smartphone Near You, Just For Tablets, Says Google

5:56 PM

Simranpal SIngh

No comments

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Google has confirmed that dreadful and unwanted news of Honeycomb not coming to your smartphone. A company spokesman was asked the question whether or not Honeycomb 3.0 would make its way to handsets, Andrew Kovacs said “no…Google’s Android 3.0 or “Honeycomb” is a tablet-only OS, for now.”
It kind of makes sense though, doesn’t it? According to various portions of the SDK, it was clear that some aspects of the source code was clearly optimized for larger form factors. It raised numerous questions as to how this could possibly be delivered to handsets.
In an article by PC Magazine, Kovacs further states:

“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.”

However, he did state, regarding smartphones, that “features will arrive on phones over time”.

Still, Android 3.0 certainly paves the way for features to arrive on Android 2.2 devices and subsequent followups. In addition to the browser enhancements, Gmail also has drag-and-drop folders. And then there’s Movie Studio, a new video-editing app that could be used in some way on smartphones that can capture video.

Then there is the issue regarding nomenclature. The author raised the question that if Honeycomb is 3.0, what does this mean for smartphones running 2.x? And what happens when they get to 2.9? It seems as though, while one question was answered, a dozen more were conjured up. Only time will tell, as they say. But rest assured, Talk Android will be there to cover it all and inform the masses. Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.