Computers, Android Tablet | featured news

The Indian government thinks the $35 Aakash Android tablet has the power to change the world. After testing one out, we’d tend to agree. An Aakash tablet was brought to the VentureBeat office on Tuesday by Vivek Wadhwa, a Washington Post columnist and visiting professor at the University of California at Berkley and Duke. Wadhwa, who is researching the Indian education system, was given the tablet by Kapil Sibal, the Indian minister of human resources and development, who has been the driving force behind the tablet project. The device (whose name means “Sky” in Hindi) was produced entirely in India — a point of pride for the Indian government.

In the world of tablets, some companies launch one model and stick to it (Apple). Others introduce several models and boast about their flexibility and desire to fulfill diverse customer preferences (Samsung, etc.).

Bidding to differentiate itself in the increasingly competitive tablet-computer market, Samsung Electronics plans this year to launch an Android-based tablet running on fourth-generation network technology.

We estimate Dell will sell around 700,000 tablets in 2011, capturing nearly 5% of Android tablets sold in the market, and will increase sales to close to 2.3 million units by 2013.

Google Mobile Platform VP Andy Rubin literally arrived with a bag full of tricks at the D: Get Into Mobile Conference, showing publicly for the very first time an Android "Honeycomb" tablet. The roughly 10-inch, Motorola device was sleek, black, thin and sported an Android interface unlike any we've seen before. There was a very clean homepage, but the app page looked almost Apple iPad-like. Plus, when Rubin brought up the Gmail app, it looked almost exactly like Gmail on the iPad.

Early reports indicate Europe will pay a pretty penny for Samsung's Galaxy Tab, but the 7-inch tablet may cost a good bit less when it comes to US shores -- the Wall Street Journal paraphrases a Samsung executive who claims it could run between $200 and $300 depending on the all-important carrier subsidies.

Samsung shows up fashionably late to the Android Tablet party with a new product scheduled to release this quarter.

Watch out, iPad: Google may be getting into the tablet game. In a move reminiscent of its recent step into mobile phone design, Google is reportedly working on its own custom Android-powered tablet.