Google's VP of engineering and Android chief, Andy Rubin, has previewed the next generation of Android tablets just after the firm unveiled release 2.3 of the operating system.
At the Dive Into Mobile event he showed off a Motorola device running Android 3.0 or Honeycomb, somewhat stealing the thunder from Monday's launch of version 2.3, or Gingerbread.
Although 2.3 has better support for larger screens than its predecessors, it is not clear whether it will stretch a decent user experience beyond seven-inches, and it is Honeycomb that will bring real optimization even for ten-inch displays.
Rubin said Honeycomb, which will ship in the first quarter of 2011, will have APIs that allow applications to be split into multiple views on the same screen.
Each release of Android should improve the experience on large-screen devices, and this will bring new launches into the field. The Motorola product on show may well have been a preview version of the promised slate it is making for Verizon Wireless, which will be integrated with the FiOS IPTV service.
It runs on the Nvidia Tegra2 dual-core processor, which is scoring strongly in next generation tablets, and is geared to video content and video chat support. LG is also expected to release its first Android tablet in Q111, once Honeycomb is ready.
Rubin also said that Android is now a profitable business in its own right because of its advertising revenues. However, he acknowledged the power of the Google brand and resources.
“There's no way I would have ever been profitable as a start-up,” he said. “I probably wouldn't have made it as a separate company.”
Rubin created Android within a start-up of the same name, which Google acquired in 2005.
He is a habitual joiner of firms that then get acquired by OS giants. Having begun his career at Apple, he joined Artemis Research, later purchased by Microsoft; then founded Danger, also later snapped up by Microsoft.