NVIDIA CEO says Android is an OS to 'unite behind,' will be better tailored to tablets this Fall
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 1st 2010 4:04PM
posted June 1st 2010 4:04PM
Microsoft's Steve Guggenheimer may think that Android on tablets is still just an experiment, but it looks like NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang would beg to differ. Speaking at Computex, he said that "Windows is too big and it's too full featured for smartbooks and tablets," and that Android is instead finally an "operating system to unite behind." He also admits, however, that Android isn't quite ready for primetime in its current incarnation when it comes to tablets, but he says that Google knows this, and recognizes that Android "has to evolve, and be enhanced in certain capabilities, in order to be a good tablet operating system." According to Huang, "we'll have to wait until the Fall" for that to happen, but he seems confident that it will indeed happen, adding that the "operating systems are coming together" and "the devices are coming together."
Aaaaand he just leaked Google's plan for Gingerbread....
@SolidSnake
This gingerbread should be....
Delicious...
@SolidSnake Android is so young, I can't wait to see the possibilities in GB and beyond. I have a 2.1 device from google i/o and it is a bit half baked but it has definite promise.
@SolidSnake Yep, just like they did with Google TV, Android for tablets is upon us. Can't wait.
@MoreGoogleAds Why do you expect Android to play xbox games?? Will WinMo 7 be able to play xbox games?? I don't think so, am I wrong??
@SolidSnake
Food puns aside, android does possess alot of potential. It's open, heavily customizable, and is backed by a very powerful company, giving it direct connections to multiple web services.
To sum it all up...
I am very exited
@MoreGoogleAds
Uhoh, I think becauseitsnotgoogle is back...
>_>
Drop the banhammer.
@SolidSnake : There's no such thing as "...too full featured". :|
@MoreGoogleAds
I won't say "destroy". Both android and WinPho7 have monumental potential, and I can't see the death of either. Personally, I would probably get a WinPho 7 phone. The UI seems orgasmic, having zune pass is excellent, xbox live makes me smile uncontrollably, and I love the SDK. On the other hand, Android is open, the interface is beautiful, I ADORE the integration of google services, Flash, multitasking, and how apps can be deeply integrated with the OS. It was such a hard choice, but although WinPho7 didn't have multitasking, the UI, Zune integration, and XBL integration was enough to make up for it.
@YvesOfWinter
I thought about the next iPhone, but decided against it. It's nice, but I know I won't be satisfied. I'm bored of the UI (Which still looks decent), and think the notification system is crappy. It has some great features, just not enough to make up for what it lacked.
@YvesOfWinter In the article picture "The gingerbread will be thiiiiiiis big."
@One Love
Looks like MeeGo is finding love with the tablet manufacturers. Considering its fast boot up speed and speed of its demonstrated UI (something which used to be Chromium's USP) and more features than Android (not restricted to VM environment and support for multiple languages) it will be interesting to see how Android/Chromium heads off the new challenger.
@SolidSnake
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50254195@N07/4661315056/
@One Love Sure. Thats exactly why you're not a CEO of a company. That's also why you're sitting on your couch unemployed surfing Engadget.
@One Love
There is if it causes a case of bloat.
@slickpaki : ...keep on trolling.
@One Love
They see me trollin', they hatin....
@al3d
"Will WinMo 7 be able to play xbox games?? I don't think so, am I wrong??"
actually i think thats what they're shooting for, yes.
@al3d Not the xbox games you can buy in the store like Halo 3 but you can play xbox games from the arcade that you can download. Windows Phone 7 can play games from the Xbox Live arcade. You can save them on your phone and pick up where you left off on your phone right on your xbox 360.
@One Love
I actually agree, one love. I don't like Nvidia's CEO telling me what I can and can't do with a tablet and this will only fuel hackers to exploit tablets like they exploit everything else. Good thing Android is an open operating system and porting meego or another linux distro to a tablet should be a cinch.
Tegra 2 powered android tablet anyone?
Android is slowly revolutionizing the market ..... Open is the way to go ..
@chosenone1 I think android is killing Chrome OS, but I guess google won't mind it's sucess.
@chosenone1
why are we in such a collective rush to replace the personal computer with glorified web browsers and OSs designed for cellphones? i really don't get it. the icing on the cake might be watching the apple and google camps square off in these comments. they're using the same playbook, kids: monetizing the internet at the expense of privacy, control, and choice. let the beating commence, but i speak truth.
@patches66
Well because people are increasingly more mobile, and technology is increasingly more mobile.
It makes sense if you think about it.
@HighestRanked2
Do you really know what open truly means? At the very least, open is now competitive. Android does offer a other positive benefits. So just because its not your mobile OS of choice, doesn't mean it isn't for millions of other people. This coming from an iPhone user. Sure fragmentation is an issue right now, but that is part of an open platform's rapid rapid growth. Now that Android is getting to a more mature stage, the rate of growth will slow into a normal schedule. Thusly quelling that pesky fragmentation issue. Seriously, you really don't think Google has a plan for fragmentation?
I couldn't agree more. One thing the big G has shown is the need for Android to expand and grow. Keep them updates coming.
It's been mentioned by multiple companies that a more tablet friendly version of Android will appear later this year.
That's your Gingerbread people.
@TheGM Where has this been mentioned? I've thought that may be a big feature of Gingerbread, but I haven't seen it discussed anywhere. Maybe I just missed it. Do you have a link or can you point us somewhere?
what I don't understand is why android doesn't fly on any tablets yet, if they can make a tablet that can even boot windows you'd think a phone os would be a piece of cake.
@mark29 There have been a few... and have been failures. It lacked a lot as tablets and what not. Still needs time to grow some, but it should all work out fine. I can't wait.. :)
@mark29
It baffles me why tables so far have been so awful and so thin on the ground. How hard can it be to gut a netbook, remove the keyboard and add a touchscreen? Or from the other direction, bulk up a smartphone with a huge-ass screen?
Why is Apple the only ones to get it remotely right?
@bebop
Because a lot of companies are still trying to give tablet users the same power than a laptop while Apple took a risk by just changing the form factor of a popular platform. Apple has never claimed their device is more than large iPod and are not trying to compete with a laptop, instead they marketed it as a limited device just to do some limited tasks and people got the magical bait with hook, line and almost the hand and a couple of fingers.
Personally I would never buy one of those but maybe because I consider myself a power user and Apple hardware and their so called stability have never appealed to me. But that doesn't mean that I cannot recognize a stroke of genius and Mr Jobs is a really good businessman. Good for him and Apple.
And by the way... a guy at the office showed me his new iPad 3G 64Gb (I'm in Australia) and it lagged (as I expected for this small device) but it was within reasonable performance and was ok. Nice toy for a gadget lover but not something which rocks my boat. Anyway I think I pissed off this guy when I asked him to play some Flash games :)
Everytime I see a picture with the Nvidia CEO, he is always doing some epic arm motions.
@TacosRule : Hes saying "Boom! goes the dynamite! What!?"
@One Love
More like "Haters gonna hate"
@DirtyVegas
I thought it was more like 'What you got, beeatch?'.
@TacosRule
"Yeah...that's my tablet... what?!"
Let's unite behind Android! All 100 flavors of it!
@bravokiloromeo
LOL
@HighestRanked2
My suggestion: Don't buy a Backflip. Do some research before you buy a phone, whether android based or not. The internet makes it so damn easy.
@HighestRanked2
"Updates roll randomly at the manufacturer's discretion"
umm...not Googles fault? i love when people bitch about companies that have too much control over something (like google and how big-brother-y they are) and then also bitch when they don't have enough control over something (like over other companies' products).
i'm guessing that the phone running 1.5 is pretty cheap. if its not, then thats AT&Ts fault. me, i like choices. if i can afford the better hardware, SURPRISE! i get the better software.
@owen66
Backflip from AT&T - $99
not bad for those that maybe dont need pinch to zoom or other "neat-o" effects.
@owen66
There isn't any other AT&T Android phone, right? I thought the Backflip, AKA a phone that can't compete with an iPhone, was the only one AT&T allowed.
i love that "you got a problem with that? Bring it!" photo. makes every nvidia article awesome.
everything the nVidia CEO is talking about is bs ... (fake fermi several times last year anyone?)
Thanks Google for bringing in more competition and forcing these stagnant overpriced industries a run for their money!!
Bring it, foo!
I didn't read this as Gingerbread I read this as Android OS finally merging with Chromium OS (which they said would happen at some point).
It looks like he's saying "What? You want a piece of THIS, motha****er?!"