Froyo not designed for tablets says Google; it won't run Android Market

Demonstrating some of the problems of being a fast growing open mobile platform, Google's director of products for mobile, Hugo Barra, has revealed that the current release of the OS, Android 2.2 isn't optimised for tablets.

It's something that might come as a shock to Samsung which is using the OS - codenamed Froyo - for its forthcoming Galaxy Tab tablet.

No store

Barra's point however is that the Android Market app store won't be available on tablets that run Froyo.

"The apps just wouldn't run. [Froyo] is just not designed for that form factor," he told TechRadar.

"But the way Android Market works is it's not going to be available on devices that don't allow applications to run correctly."

This is due to how screen size and resolutions are defined in the OS, with an upper limit of 480 x 854.

The Galaxy Tab's 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024 x 600.

Instead Google will support tablets with future releases of Android - 3.0 (codename Gingerbread), and Honeycomb. In addition, it's expected that Samsung will enable Galaxy Tab users to upgrade from Froyo to Gingerbread post launch.

[source: TechRadar]