Reports: Motorola planning tablet for early 2011
Motorola could be releasing a tablet early next year, co-CEO Sanjay Jha said in a recent investor conference.
Motorola is planning to jump into the tablet market, co-CEO Sanjay Jha said earlier this week in an investor conference, according to news reports.
Speaking to investors, Jha said that his company wants to offer a tablet that would be "competitive in the marketplace." He said that he hopes to have a "competitive" tablet available "early next year," according to The Wall Street Journal. From what CNET has heard, the Motorola tablet is known as Everest.
Although he didn't explicitly say it, Jha also indicated that Motorola's tablet could run Android 3.0, code-named "Gingerbread." He referenced comments made recently by Google director of mobile products, Hugo Barra, who said that version 2.2 of Android OS "is not optimized for use on tablets." Google is expected to make Android 3.0 available next year, which would coincide with Motorola's expected tablet launch.
Of course, not every company is following Motorola's lead. Dell is currently selling its 5-inch Streak tablet, which runs Android 1.6. Samsung recently unveiled the Galaxy Tab, which is scheduled to launch later this year. The tablet will run Android 2.2, but it will be upgradeable to Android 3.0 when the OS is made available.
Unlike its competitors, Motorola is following a more cautious strategy. And it should be interesting to see how that plays out over the coming months.