Google, Asus co-brand tablet to take on Amazon Kindle Fire Asus and Google are working on a co-branded 7in tablet designed to take the fight to Amazon's Kindle Fire, but the gadget won't be unveiled to the public before May. So say unnamed industry sources, cited by DigiTimes, who add that the Android-running tablet will be the first to use Google's new Play online shop. As such, the …
My phone came with non-Google apps & services for books, music and movies, and gave me the option to install the Google equivalents (other than Google Music in the UK) or something completely different. I can install a different market app if I want to as well.
But muppets think it's "not open".
I think you should also watch those blinkers when you're reading that article. A more correct statement would be "use Google's services when distributing through other Google services". Until (and I will be surprised if it is) it's announced that this tablet only allows apps through the Android Market (nope, not calling it Play yet) then I don't see the problem.
That article actually states that it is a good move on Google's behalf to require Google Play developers to use the Google Wallet for purchases.
Doesn't mention forcing developers distributing apps via other means to have to use Google Wallet just because they are developing for android.
You sure this won't be locked down to use the Google's Play Shop exclusively?
Google is already banning apps that use third party payment services such as Paypal:
Android Market rule prohibits use of third-party in-app payment services
Google isn't banning anyone from using 3rd party payment services only stating that apps that are hosted via the Google Play have to use Google Wallet.
You can get an app from anywhere, that uses any payment method you want.
They can't really lock it down to using a single market either without changing their whole developer ecosystem and becoming a walled garden - which is more than a little unlikley.
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Maybe Asus is a better choice. A history of excellent, well engineered and durable hardware, fast to market and able to deliver at the low end. They invented the netbook market.
Sadly their marketing could not keep pace and they lost out there. Let's hope second time round they have hired some better marketeers and put some guts and volume into the non-Apple fondleslab market..
"Asus was the most happy to punt a low-cost tablet, unworried that the entry level positioning would tarnish its brand."
I think the fact that Asus' competitors seem to think they *have* a premium brand when it comes to tablets says a lot about their current lack of sales.
Personally, I'm quite impressed with Asus, a few dodgy firmware updates aside, and I think they would have been a far better choice than Samsung, Acer and Motorola even if the latter hadn't been so precious.
'A history of excellent, well engineered and durable hardware' NOT!
Check out the download page for the A8N-VM CSM/NBP (NBP means nVidia Business Platform)
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_939/A8NVM_CSMNBP/#download
The final BIOS is Beta for chrissakes and can't even boot Windows 7 because they fucked up the Trusted Core module (as far as I can tell) and never finished the job.
It's far from the only problem I had with Asus boards, but then I haven't bought Asus for over 5 years because of the problems. Rumour has it they've improved, but I'm once bitten, especially considering there are other excellent manufacturers out there.
"Asus was the most happy to punt a low-cost tablet, unworried that the entry level positioning would tarnish its brand."
Probably because they do entry-level stuff already in other areas and do it fairly well. Plus their existing 'droid tablet is probably the best of the bunch, so they've got a good Premium model on the market already. The other brands, named in the article or not, are trailing significantly, whether they admit it or not.
I imagine Google have more or less had to do this. Having set up the only credible non-IOS market, in tablets at least, the only serious competitor to Apple's volumes is the one that's been (at least partially) cleansed of Google's data harvesting tools.
So now Google are "partnering" (for which I read subsidizing) with Asus to limit the damage.
That must hurt :-)
On a more serious note, if I were an Android Licensee I'd be a bit hacked right off. Having watched Apple decimate me in the premium end of the business, to have then to watch Google kill me at the bottom end too is a bit of a body blow.
Any Android device can be used without a Google account, but hardly anyone knows this. (Practically) any Android device can use Google's ecosystem or download content and apps from a wide variety of sources, but a lot of people don't seem to understand this. A Kindle Fire lets you download stuff from Amazon and everybody knows this.
It's not that people want to get away from Google, it's that they want a cheap device that has all the content they want at the press of an icon, and Kindle is what they know can do this. With Google Play (and a bit more awareness-creation), more people will get to know that any Android device does the same as Kindle Fire or an Ipad.
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