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Switched On: Android's tablet traversal
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. At AsiaD this week, Google's Andy Rubin noted that there were at least six million Android tablets in use. That number included only those running Google services. One could question whether the briskly selling Nook Color -- which is not open to Android apps at large -- is relevant to that tally, at least from a developer perspective. It will certainly be the case, though, that the Kindle Fire -- also expected to be a hot seller -- will be an important addition to the number moving forward. Still, Rubin conceded, it was a tally far behind that of the 30 million cumulative units of the iPad, which broke open the modern-day tablet category, extended its lead with the iPad 2, and will likely see another revision this coming spring. When Apple introduced its tablet device, it set a precedent for third-party developers by rewriting core applications to take advantage of the iPad's larger display with "HD" versions. And while there are still far fewer native iPad apps than iPhone apps, Apple is far ahead in the race for native tablet software. But not everyone wants to join that race.
NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang: Windows on ARM should hit tablets first, battling Intel is a bad idea, would love his chips in iPad
NVIDIA's founder and president Jen-Hsun Huang has never been one to dodge a question, and that made for an excellent closing interview here at AsiaD. Outside of (re)confirming what lies ahead for Tegra, he also spoke quite openly about his feeling towards Windows on ARM in response to a question from Joanna Stern. Here's the bulk of his reply: "It's important for [Microsoft] not to position these as PCs. From a finesse perspective -- I can't speak on their behalf -- but I would come out with tablets first with Windows on ARM. It helps to establish that this isn't a PC. Will yesterday's Office run on tomorrow's Windows on ARM PC? Will a new version of Office run on tomorrow's Windows on ARM tablets? Both questions are about legacy, and both are about Office. The actual implementation of it is radically different. I see no reason to make Office 95 to run on Windows on ARM. I think it would be wonderful, absolutely wonderful -- I'd say, as someone who uses Windows -- it would be almost a requirement to me that [the ARM] device runs Windows interoperably. If Office runs on Windows on ARM -- it's the killer app. Everything else is on the web." He elaborated to say that he would hope Office for Windows on ARM would support the same files that today's Office does, much the same way that Office for Mac eventually synced up with its Windows-based sibling. For more from Huang's interview, hop on past the break!
NVIDIA CEO confirms Tegra roadmap, building all now: Kal-El, Wayne, Logan, Stark
NVIDIA's historically outspoken CEO, Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, just took the stage here at AsiaD, and among other things, he confirmed to Walt that the Tegra roadmap is well established, and in fact, the entire next-gen range is being produced (internally, of course) right now. That's Kal-El, Wayne, Logan and Stark, all codenamed after superheroes -- Superman, Batman, Wolverine and Ironman, in order of mention. In response to a question of if ASUS' Transformer Prime would be "the first Tegra 3-based product," Huang simply answered "probably." He continued by explaining that it generally takes around three years to build a new generation of Tegra: "We'd like to have a processor every year, and so we're building three in a row." Tegra 3 will end up being the world's first quad-core ARM processor (much like the Tegra 2 was the first dual-core), and he confirmed that NVIDIA has invested some $2 billion in Tegra alone. Finally, he confirmed that the inner workings we've heard about in Project Denver will first be present in the Tegra line with the introduction of Stark -- a long ways out, but at least you've got something (else) to look forward to.
Kaz Hirai: Sony is 'in discussions with non-Sony companies' over PlayStation Suite
Wondering whether Sony's PlayStation Suite will ever really leave its nest? While the SDK won't be out until next month, SCE Chairman Kaz Hirai just told us here at AsiaD that this Android-friendly framework's still open to all other manufacturers, and he emphasized that it "isn't an ecosystem where we want to keep everything within the Sony family" while pimping the three PlayStation Certified Android devices so far: Xperia Play, Tablet S and Tablet P. Kaz also confirmed that Sony's currently "in discussions with non-Sony companies to bring them onboard," but as to when this will come to fruition, the company will make those announcements "when it's time to go public with it," so we shall see.
Google's Bradley Horowitz: 'we're throwing fewer things against the wall'
And with that, a dream dies. Well, maybe that's a bit sensational, but we aren't going to lie -- we wept inside upon hearing Google's Bradley Horowitz (Vice President of Product Management) contritely state that his company is "doing less of throwing things against the wall." In fact, he proclaimed that Google+ was morphing into a platform that would absolutely, without question become a pillar across the company in some form or fashion. In other words, it's too big to fail. He stated that the idea of using the general public as a test bed for products (hello, Buzz!) was fading quickly, and that this "transformation" would be "very healthy" for Google. He did affirm that engineers are still given their token "20 percent time" in order to innovate on whatever they darn well please, but we seriously got the impression that the culture under Larry Page isn't focusing nearly as intently on that kind of frivolous, outlandish and absolutely marvelous behavior. Bradley noted that while "20 percent time" isn't going away, there are changes taking place. There's a "higher bar on what gets put to market, and more of an editing function than before." Continuing on, he stated the following: "Instead of making these decisions in the market... we're doubling-down on ones that are more important across the company." If you're a hardcore, orthodox businessperson, this sounds totally logical. The whole "stop being childish, start being responsible" thing sure sounds appropriate on paper, but c'mon -- this is Google! A huge part of the company's mystique, charm and spontaneous nature came in its "we'll try anything once" persona, and if that truly is dying in even a small way, we can't help but have a heavy heart. The further Google strays from its startup roots (and the more it tries to act like every other bureaucratic mega-corp), the less likely we are to get flops like Google TV. But on the same token, the less likely we are to have that one-in-a-million hit (and oddballs like this) that would've never proved viable in any "research group." Here's one final quote from Bradley when asked to elaborate on this corporate shift: "We would rather do fewer things well -- we're now on a path to remedy prior sins of omissions. I think it's a tradeoff [with losing some of the freewheeling autonomy]. I still think there's a tremendous part of Google culture that'll never change, but what's exciting is that the company is rallying around this, and [the employees] see the benefits of alignment. We've won the hearts of employees, and there's tremendous momentum on what we're doing. My experience is that Larry is a consummate product leader -- it's thrilling, it feels like the company is coordinated in a way that I've never seen. I don't know that it's just Larry, but I couldn't be more impressed with him as CEO. I didn't expect this level of change in company culture when that announcement was made."
Samsung's Won-Pyo Hong: Galaxy Nexus wasn't designed just to skirt Apple patents
Well, so much for that. Samsung's Executive Vice President of Product Strategy -- Won-Pyo Hong -- didn't say a whole heck of a lot on stage here at AsiaD, but he did clarify one thing near the end of his interview: he has 'no idea' where those earlier rumors came from. With "those rumors" regarding the matter of designing the Galaxy Nexus specifically to avoid patent troubles with Apple. According to Dr. Hong, the actual development of the Galaxy Nexus started with Google before the initial lawsuit hammer fell between the two outfits, making it impossible for the suits being flung back and forth today to have any impact on that decision.We believe it. These phones are designed months -- if not years -- in advance, and the actual process from concept to shipping takes a relative eternity. Furthermore, the original source (linked in More Coverage) only tied the quotes from Sammy's Shin Jong-kyun loosely to the Galaxy Nexus, and we're guessing that Samsung takes a look at all potential legal implications before shipping any product. In other words, the company's probably doing everything it can -- including paying Microsoft for every single Android device sold -- to avoid these nasty legal battles, but the Galaxy Nexus wasn't engineered just to sidestep another fight with the lawyers in Cupertino. And now you know.Update: In response to a question from Joanna Stern regarding Samsung's rethinking of hardware and software (mainly TouchWiz) in order to lessen its chances of being sued in the future, Dr. Hong did muster a very vague affirmation that a newer build of TouchWiz will eventually surface, and that it'll almost certainly be tweaked in a way that'll cause Apple's lawyers to salivate less.
Microsoft's Andy Lees: talking to your phone isn't super useful, NFC coming soon to Windows Phone
Microsoft's President of Windows Phone, Mr. Andy Lees, just wrapped up a diverse interview with Ina Fried at AsiaD, in which he took the chance to gloat on Nokia's behalf about the impending launch of its wide array of WP7-based smartphones. Moreover, he proudly responded to claims that WP7 sales have been suboptimal by clarifying that Windows Phone 7 sold more in its first 12 months on the market than did Android. Granted, the smartphone market was entirely more prepared for another entrant when Microsoft arrived, but we digress. He also held no punches when asked to opine on Andy Rubin's swings at Windows Phone from last night's interview, noting that "Android is very techy," and that it's a great OS for a certain population. He stated that Android hits you "with a grid of apps," instead of taking a "people approach," which WP7 presumably has. Of course, we all know how The Social went over... All jesting aside, he responded to Ina's questions surrounding hardware choices with this: "We wanted to stop problems with fragmentation, so we've locked a lot of things down. We want partners to add value, but not in a way that's chaotic. As an example, we do hardware acceleration of the browser -- no matter which WP device you choose, it all works in a consistent way. Some things in 2012 will extend that." Moving on to more competitive questions (surrounding Siri, mostly), he affirmed that users can indeed talk to their Windows Phone handsets, but that the kind of implementation seen in Siri isn't "super useful." He also -- oddly, we must say -- noted that WP7's voice implementations rely on Bing, which harnesses "the full power of the internet, rather than a certain subset." Last we checked, Siri and Wolfram Alpha were connected to the internet, but we get his point -- in theory, at least. He confirmed that speaking to one's phone was practical in places like motorcars, but he seemed to imply that barking commands to a phone in public wasn't something that Microsoft was inclined to ask its users to do. On a hardware-related note, Andy affirmed that NFC chipsets will indeed ship on WP7 devices within the next year, and while Microsoft's not interested in competing with Google and the like from a platform standpoint, it's more than happy to enable mobile payments via services that already exist. To quote: "Microsoft is providing technological building blocks so payments can be done on the phone -- we aren't competing with other people providing services. We'll have a platform approach." Finally, he also alluded to the inclusion of LTE as the infrastructure behind WP evolves, leaving us to wonder if it'll be Apple (or someone else entirely) as the final 4G holdout.
Microsoft's Andy Lees: Nokia will announce 'its Windows Phones' at Nokia World
No surprise here, but you can officially mark Nokia World 2011 down as must-watch TV. Andy Lees just confirmed here on stage at AsiaD that the London-based event, which kicks off on October 26th, will be the launchpad for Nokia's Windows Phones. Yes, phones. As in, plural. He specifically stated: "[Nokia will] have differentiating hardware and software." We've already caught plenty of sneak peeks at what may be on tap, and you can bet we'll be on hand to bring you the details as they're poured out. First Mango, now Nokia. Looks like it'll be quite the holiday season for the WP7 department. Update: Here's a quote near the end of the interview from Andy. "Nokia will announce its rollout plans with Windows Phone, among other things. It made an evaluation early on, and saw our roadmap for this year and next year, and it decided to bet the whole company on Windows Phone based on that. We've seen that other hardware makers have seen this occurrence as an accelerant, which in turn helps both Microsoft and Nokia. I'm also excited about naming some new OEMs that will be coming onboard [with WP7]."
ASUS' Jonney Shih: Android 4.0 hitting tablets by year's end, ultrathin netbook is coming
We just witnessed quite the interview between ASUS chairman Jonney Shih and Walt Mossberg at AsiaD, and outside of revealing the Transformer Prime (and affirming that the impending Padfone would ship with Android 4.0), he also dropped a few other nuggets worth mention to the audience here in Hong Kong. For starters, he finally caved to Walt's pestering about who his main competition was, specifically related to the new Zenbook. "The Mac[Book] Air," he stated, chuckling slyly afterwards, but quickly continuing on to plug his own machine based on its own merits. Not surprisingly, he also expressed his confidence that Android tablets still had a lot of life left in the market, and he stated that ASUS is still on track to move its target -- around two million -- Android tablets this year. Moving onto the topic of netbooks, Shih noted that rather than being buried, netbooks are simply "evolving." More importantly, however, was his subtle confirmation that a new ASUS netbook is en route: "You'll see on our new netbook, it'll be very thin." In fact, he even suggested that the design may follow that of the Zenbook, but just... smaller. When asked about his thoughts on people replacing laptops less frequently, and perhaps shifting disposable income to smartphones and tablets, Jonney maintained that all of those markets were key to ASUS' success, and that none were taking a backseat. "We believe that this a very critical time, transitioning from the personal computing era to the ubiquitous cloud computing era." Sounds a bit like another mantra we heard, truth be told, but ASUS has been riding the cloud bandwagon long before most other consumer companies even knew what it was. The original spate of Eee PCs had next to no internal storage; rather, they relied on accessing the web in order to deliver the bulk of their functionality. Jonney also noted that ASUS is attempting to tackle an interesting problem with its products, which is that few people can truly separate work and entertainment -- in other words, you need products that adequately handle both worlds. We're guessing a Padfone + Transformer Prime + Zenbook is his preferred trifecta to do just that.
ASUS' Jonney Shih: PadFone will ship in Q1 2012 with Ice Cream Sandwich
You heard it here first, folks -- ASUS chairman Jonney Shih just affirmed that the long-awaited PadFone will be shipping in Q1 of 2012, and yes, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will be onboard. That was in response to a question from Joanna Stern regarding the future of the multifaceted device, which we first heard may run ICS way back in May. Still no solid word on price or a global release schedule, but now that Android 4.0 is finally coming out, we're assuming things are finally in high gear.
ASUS' Jonney Shih unveils Transformer Prime Android tablet: 10-inch, 8.3mm, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3
Whoa, Nelly! ASUS head honcho Jonney Shih just revealed the "next-generation Transformer tablet" here at AsiaD! It's the same one that we saw teased just yesterday, and Jonney affirmed that it'll ship with a quad-core NVIDIA chip, 10-inch display, mini-HDMI port, a 14.5-hour battery, an SD card slot and a top lid that looks precisely like its Zenbook line. Oh, and it's 8.3mm thick, though Jonney didn't specify as to whether that was docked or undocked (we're guessing the former!). Naturally, it'll ship with Android, and we're assuming it'll be Honeycomb to start. That said, Shih did affirm to Walt Mossberg that he expects Ice Cream Sandwich to hit tablets by the end of the year -- "perhaps earlier." Finally, we were informed that it'll be called the Transformer Prime, and while a final ship date wasn't given, we're told to expect more news on that front during the November 9th "official reveal." %Gallery-137055%
Google's 'very close' to launching a digital download store with 'a little twist'
Google Music may well be lacking a little spice right now, but here at AsiaD, SVP Andy Rubin just confirmed that his company's "very close" to coming up with a digital download store, just as rumored earlier this month. Additionally, this service will even include "a little twist" of some sort, so we should expect something more than just an ordinary MP3 store. While record companies weren't willing to bargain with the company in the way they were with Apple, Andy said he's feeling mighty optimistic that Google's "almost there" with ironing out the necessary deals, so Android fans should sit tight and keep an eye out for a launch soon.
Andy Rubin: Ice Cream Sandwich's Face Unlock is developed by PittPatt
Liking that Face Unlock on Ice Cream Sandwich we saw this morning? You can thank PittPatt for that. Here at AsiaD's opening session, Android head honcho Andy Rubin just confirmed that said Pittsburgh-based company -- acquired by Google earlier this year -- was responsible for this nifty security feature. While the demo didn't go as planned for Matias Duarte at the launch event, Andy was able to show us how Face Unlock's meant to work on the stage just now. In fact, Andy said his team even had to "slow down the process" as PittPatt's software was too fast to make folks believe that any security at all was involved -- for what it's worth, Walt Mossberg's beard couldn't get past the unlock screen on Andy's Galaxy Nexus. Head on over to our hands-on video to see us getting up close and personal with Face Unlock.
Liveblog from AsiaD: Andy Rubin, SVP of Mobile at Google
Thought today's festivities were over from Hong Kong? Think again. While Samsung and Google tag-teamed the morning with the introduction of the Galaxy Nexus, the first-ever AsiaD conference is kicking off as the sun sets over Victoria Harbour. The opening keynote is quite the impressive one, with Google's own Senior Vice President of Mobile, Andy Rubin, on the docket. Mr. Rubin's no stranger to these events -- in fact, we've liveblogged his interviews twice from All Things D events -- and we're expecting quite the talk tonight following the official unveiling of Ice Cream Sandwich. Join us after the break for the liveblog!
