Notebook Makers Think iOS Will Stomp Ice Cream Sandwich

Companies may have started out on the tablet front with high hopes, but it looks like the optimism has mostly gone away, according to reports that see iOS as too great an obstacle for the upcoming Android Ice Cream Sandwich from Google.

The Ice Cream Sandwich is the upcoming version of Google's Android operating system, the one that is supposed to truly battle Apple's iOS.

Some parties may feel that there is a real chance, especially now that the Android 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 (Honeycomb) versions really did offer better support for tablets.

However, even with the better performance and wider feature set, as well as the steadily rising number of apps in the Android market, notebook players are having second thoughts.

After all, if RIM, Motorola and HP all decided to back out of the tablet market, or are considering it / are in the process of doing so, it must mean that something just isn't working for non-iOS device makers yet.

According to this particular report, made by Digitimes, there isn't much excitement left among the ranks of notebook makers, and this isn't because of the expectation that the overall tablet market will soon drop.

Indeed, since the novelty is wearing off, a reduction in tablet demand will apply to iOS and non-iOS models alike, so the distribution of the market share won't really suffer overmuch.

The real reason is that notebook companies don't really expect Ice Cream Sandwich to have what it takes to seriously take away some of the share that Apple has at the moment.

Furthermore, Apple is bound to keep improving and remaking its offer as well, so there will always be something more to deal with.

All in all, laptop companies that would like a stake in the slate segment might have to wait until the coming of Windows 8 or the Android version which will succeed Ice Cream Sandwich.