What Tablet News To Expect from Google I/O 2013

Google's annual developer conference kicks off on Wednesday with a three-hour keynote address. Here's everything new android tablet users should be looking forward too.There isn't expected to be a new version of the larger Nexus 10, as that tablet only launched last fall.

Android 4.3

At one point it was thought that Google I/O 2013 would see the release of Android 5.0 (Key Lime Pie), but recent reports indicate that the next version of this operating system will be a smaller upgrade -- this will apparently be dubbed Android 4.3 and have the same code-name as the last two versions: Jelly Bean.

Among the changes that are expected is Google Play Games, which newest android tablet will be a central location where players of online Android games will be able to find each other. It will also allow gamers to post achievements and game-makers can display leaderboards online. Apple users should be familiar with this concept, as iOS has Game Center.An update to Google Wallet is also expected, but that is more smartphone software than for tablets.

A dark-horse possibility for Google I/O 2013 is a tablet running Chrome OS. This company has introduced tablets with this operating system and there has been speculation that a tablet with it could be released.François Hollande will receive a report today resulting from nine months of studying how the digital economy can contribute to cultural funding in France. This report will detail a plan to add a tax on smartphones and tablets, a tax which will go to pay for art & culture in France -whether it be keeping Versailles golden or public fountains clean. dfsWF2FR

Historically (since the 1980s), TV stations, movie theaters, radio stations & ISPs – distributors of ‘cultural goods’ (art) – have had a tax on their revenue that went straight into keeping the Louvre pretty (among other cultural works in France); thus, as smartphones and latest android tablet are now digital distributors of arts & cultural works in France, the report suggests that these items should be taxed.

Archos has a new Android tablet for your consideration, the kitchen-themed ChefPad. Rather than a stock Android experience and traditional tablet, this one is designed to stay in one place. Specifications are pretty much your typical mid-range device with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a dual-core 1.6GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB internal storage.

Android Tablets to Get Doc-Editing Features from Microsoft

To be clear, Microsoft did not this week announce what many people have wanted for a long time: native Office apps for new android tablet and/or iOS tablets.

Now that that's out of the way, here’s what Microsoft did announce: Intentions to bring Office Web App file-editing capabilities to Android tablets via the Chrome browser. Unfortunately, the announcement, which came in a May 7 blog post, didn’t say exactly when Android tablets will get the same "lightweight" (Microsoft’s term) Office Web Apps editing tools that iPad and Windows 8 tablet users already have.

Android tablet users should be able to access files in their SkyDrive accounts, create files or perform light edits on those files. The service is free; you don’t need to be an Office 365 subscriber or buy a third-party Office-compatible app. Office Web Apps also maintain the formatting in your Office documents, which isn’t always the case when you use third-party Office apps.

When will the native Office apps for newest android tablet and iOS devices be available? A recent PC World article says late 2014. Until then, third-party Office Word Apps might meet your mobile Office needs—as long as those needs are "lightweight." Some alternatives I’ve used and recommend (with caveats) include CloudOn (free), for delivering a virtual Office environment to Android and iOS devices; Office² HD ($8) for iPads; and Quickoffice Pro HD ($20) for Android tablets. sfdD3Ssjh

Consumers are going crazy for tablet devices these days. It started with Apple's iPad, which is still the best selling tablet line out there, and continues with the influx of low-cost Android slates from name-brand vendors like Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Asus, and so forth. Tablets have become so popular that Microsoft went and re-imagined Windows for touch input on-the-go. It seems unlikely these mobile devices are going anywhere, or does it? "You're going to see a shift I think. While tablets are good you're still restricted when it comes to content creation; there's always going to be a need for notebooks," Muscat told T3. "I think it's moving a lot more towards taking latest android tablet technology and effectively turning it into notebook technology."

Muscat gives the tablet form factor another two to three years before it yields to hybrid laptops. Is he crazy in thinking that? You'd have a hard time convincing BlackBerry CEO Thornsten Heins of that. At the end of last month, Heins made a similar prediction, stating in an interview with Bloomberg that five years from now, there won't be a reason to own a tablet.

LG Working On New Tablet?

Like rival smartphone-maker HTC, it looks like LG may be looking at renewing its 7 inch tablet efforts with a forthcoming tablet that could debut as early as the third quarter of this year. At this point, there’s still not a lot of information known about LG’s tablet effort or which operating system that tablet will run. The company had relied on Google’s Android OS in the past to power its Optimus Pad series slates, but LG could potentially base its new tablet endeavors on new operating systems, such as Windows 8 or Windows RT from Microsoft.

A move into the Windows RT space could potentially make LG a competitor with HTC, the latter of which is rumored to be working on two tablets with Microsoft’s Windows RT OS. Samsung had said in the past that Windows RT was confusing and it would not release a tablet in the U.S. market with Windows RT on board; instead Samsung had chosen Windows 8 and Android for its discount cell phones endeavors.

Another smartphone-maker without a tablet in its portfolio is Nokia, which is also rumored to be working with Microsoft on either a Windows 8 or Windows RT slate.

However, LG’s ties to Google are still pretty strong, and an Android offering may still be in the cards. LG was rumored to be courting Google to help it in the TV space and the two has enjoyed a successful Nexus 4 launch, a smartphone that’s branded by Google but made by LG and shares a similar chassis and design to the LG Optimus G flagship. As such, a new tablets running Android may help further the relationship between LG and Google.

"We see different kinds of successful experiences on each platform. Great content creators create content natively for that platform," he says, while noting that Zynga wants to take its most popular games across as many platforms as possible, and citing Words With Friends' journey from smartphones to tablets and then Facebook as an example.D1dS343D

Is Zynga thinking tablet-first in 2013, though? Finnish startup Supercell did in 2012, and its Clash of Clans and Hay Day games generated $179m of revenues for the company in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Is that nudging Zynga towards a similar tablet-first strategy, at least for some games?

"There are great games that new android tablet started on Facebook like Zynga Poker, which later extended to mobile phones and to tablets," Boatman says. "And there are games that we are building that are focused on tablets first, and if they're very successful there, we may extend them to Facebook and mobile."

Despite data caps, more consumers are adding tablets to mobile data plans

Do capped data plans make LTE connectivity a waste for tablets for sale? Perhaps, but don’t tell that to the millions of people who are adding their tablets to their monthly shared plans. New research from Strategy Analytics has found that more than 40 million tablets are hooked up to either 3G or 4G mobile networks, roughly double the number of tablets that had data plans for 3G and 4G networks in 2012. fds1EWS6

The firm projects that there will be around 165 million tablets on mobile data plans by 2017, an eight-fold increase from the number of tablets on data plans in 2012. Strategy Analytics analyst Susan Welsh de Grimaldo notes that “while direct mobile broadband subscriptions on tablets represent less than 10 percent of the total tablet installed base in 2012, they were a key driver of positive postpaid net additions at leading operators AT&T and Verizon Wireless in Q1 2013.” The firm’s full press release is posted below.

Despite continued strong growth of smartphones and the prevalence of WiFi only tablets, mobile broadband subscriptions on connected tablets will expand rapidly in the next five years. Strategy Analytics forecasts global mobile broadband subscriptions on tablets will grow 8x from 2012 to 2017—as more than 165 million new tablets activate mobile data services.

The Strategy Analytics Wireless Operator Strategies (WOS) service report, “new tablets at Mobile Operators: Forecasts of Tablet Subscriptions, Data Traffic, Service Revenue 2010-2017,” projects that in 2017 global mobile tablet subscriptions will contribute nearly US$20 billion to operator service revenues and generate almost 3 and a half million Terabytes of mobile data traffic. With the new iPad setting the technology benchmark, 4G LTE quickly becomes the access technology of choice and will account for more than 80 percent of all mobile broadband tablet subscriptions by the end of 2017.

The most important near-term driver for tablet subscriptions is operator tariffs that aim to stimulate more tablet connections. In particular, service plans allowing multiple devices to share a pooled data allocation on a single data plan, such as those offered by AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Turkcell and later this year the Vodafone Red plans, are driving subscriptions directly on tablets, as are lower cost SIM-only prepaid tariffs for tablets. Other approaches to drive connections include bundling connectivity options out-of-the-box for tablets, such as the 4G Connect “comes-with-data” model launched by T-Mobile USA and HP initially on notebooks or the just announced Dell NetReady solution offering integrated 3G mobile connectivity from Telefonica for notebooks and tablets in a pan-European, pay-as-you-go model targeting enterprises.

“Mobile broadband tablets represent an important incremental growth opportunity for wireless operators. While direct mobile broadband subscriptions on tablets represent less than 10 percent of the total tablet installed base in 2012, they were a key driver of positive postpaid net additions at leading operators AT&T and Verizon Wireless in Q1 2013,” notes Susan Welsh de Grimaldo , Director, Wireless Operators & Networks at Strategy Analytics. Phil Kendall , Director, Wireless Operator Strategies, adds, “US, China, Japan and UK will be leading markets for tablet subscriptions, but we also anticipate strong growth in emerging markets of Brazil and India where video content and network upgrades will drive demand for wide-area connectivity on tablets.”

The companion report, ”Global Active Mobile Broadband new tablets Subscription, Service Revenue, Data Traffic Forecast: 2010-2017″ provides detailed forecasts for subscriptions, average revenue per user (ARPU) and service revenues, average monthly mobile data traffic and total network traffic from tablet subscriptions, covering 38 countries as well as regional and global views.