You walk into a local mom and pop computer store and see a line of inexpensive, custom-built PCs running Windows 7. You’re in the market for a desktop, so you spend a few hundred dollars, take it home and fire it up. Sure, the case isn’t emblazoned with a recognizable logo, and the keyboard and mouse don’t share the same color scheme, but home-brewed or not, a PC is, by and large, a PC:
It can run all Windows 7 software; its internal components can be updated with new drivers from their respective manufacturers; you can plug in any Windows-compatible peripheral and begin using it immediately; any old monitor you have lying around will, as they say, plug and play.
In short, an off-brand PC behaves like any other PC on the market. It’s just not a Dell, a Sony VAIO or an HP.
But in the brave new world of Android tablets, this is all too often not the case. Windows is Windows. Android, on the other hand, is not necessarily Android, at least not the Android you’ve seen or used on mainstream devices. On that $200 no-name Android tablet you bought on eBay, Android may be little more than a sandbox OS akin to what you’d find on a cable company DVR. And that’s probably not what you had in mind when you bought it.
Case in point: yesterday I received an email from a reader who had recently purchased a NextBook Android tablet. Now, NextBook is one of the better-known Android tablet brands outside first-tier makers like Motorola, Samsung and LG, but the tablet is not at all what the reader expected.
The main reason: no Android Market.
If you’ve ever used an Android-powered smartphone, a Motorola XOOM or a Samsung Galaxy Tab, you’re familiar with the Market. It provides a way to augment the functionality of the device by providing a way to install additional software (or apps), arguably the most important feature of any smart-device. If you have an Android phone, you’ve almost certainly added games, productivity tools and/or utilities via the Market to increase the number of tasks your phone can perform.
Some lesser-known Android tablets, though, don’t include the Android Market because of app compatibility issues – both with the tablet’s software and the hardware.
Android is an open OS, meaning once a company gets its hands on the operating system, they’re free to change it in just about any way they wish. That level of freedom provided to device makers is a double-edge sword, though, because while it allows more flexibility in how the OS operates, and also makes it possible to create Android-powered devices that vary greatly from the Android-standard. This can result in issues with hardware and software.
On the NextBook website, in the FAQ section, you’ll find dodgy declarations like “[n]ot all applications can run in [SIC] the device due to the system and hardware incompatibility,” and “[a]pps in APK format can be downloaded to the unit. But not all apps can run properly…” A real world translation might be more like: of the hundreds of thousands of Android apps available in the Market and elsewhere, you can run a few hundred, and mostly only those we support.
Then there are more deceptive statements. One FAQ is: Can you download skype [to the NextBook]? The answer: Yes, you can download if the app is available in the SLIDE ME app library. (FYI, Skype is not available in the SLIDE ME app library, a third-party application source with apps supported by NextBook devices.) This is akin to posing the question Can a pig fly? and getting the response Yes, if it has the ability.
To be fair, the NextBook web site does state: “The Nextbook has NO Android Market Place…” However, this admonition is not included on the product description pages, but is buried in the FAQ section; and this would seem to be a somewhat important bit of information to pass along to prospective buyers.
I’m not picking on NextBook; there are more lesser-known Android devices that have the same app-problems. The Camangi WebStation is another example of an Android tablet without the standard Market. And there are others.
The point is this: if you want an Android tablet, I suggest you stick with a well-known, established company for now. Motorola, LG, Samsung – these devices are manufactured and implemented in such a way that they conform to Android standards, at least to the degree that they come with the Android Market. That $150 tablet may seem like a bargain, but if you want to use it the way most tablet users do, you may find yourself frustrated, out of cash, and without a desirable third-party app in sight.
M. Nichols, Products Editor