Android 2.2 does not support tablets. So say Google.

http://androidcommunity.com/android-2-2 ... -20100910/


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That isn't what they say. They say, that for devices over 10" in size, you don't need an operating system and apps, you just need a web browser...

So does that mean Android will never have apps for larger devices?


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Hang on, only using web apps. Where have I heard that before?

The apps do just scale in the vast majority of cases, I get all the standard apps on my WVGA screen. It's not like devices for X won't work on Y just because of screen size, more likely due to OS

There are some web apps already such as www.miniapps.co.uk which are all HTML5 so work on iPhone (and in most cases Android)

Android will run on bigger devices and you can run apps on them. There is nothing to stop you, just Google are marketing the 10"+ segment as the territory of Chrome devices. There is nothing to stop a manufacturer from installing Android on a 70" TV, for instance.

Isn't Android 3 being optimized for larger screen sizes?

Very good, but that still leaves the apps themselves. You in theory can just scale up for a bigger screen but if you're doing the job properly you do a lot more than that. For example, you have 'next' and 'previous' buttons somewhere. if you just scale everything up, those buttons are now twice as far apart as they were, so you now have to move your finger twice as far to click them. What you should do is redesign the screen so the buttons are in the same place relative to each other and use the extra screen real estate you've got some for something else.

This is why iOS have the idea of Universal Apps - essentially they're a back end app with several separate GUIs bundled together; one for a plain iPhone, one for the iPad and, if you're particularly conscientious, one with higher res graphics for the retina display.

As far as I'm aware, Android don't have a standard way of accounting for different size screens. And, by the looks of things, you're not just going to be dealing with two screen sizes - there are going to be 7" android tablets, 10" android tablets, high res android phones, low res android phones, android equipped set top boxes...

Essentially, to design an app that works properly on any android device, you're going to have to design something that's effectively resolution independent. That's actually bloody hard to do well. And I'd be willing to bet none of the current Android apps are. And I'd be willing to further bet a lot of them never will be - they'll be designed for phone screens and work, but poorly, on tablet screens.