14 DAY TRIAL // The next flavor of Google's Android operating system was previously rumored to arrive on the market as Android Honeycomb, and further confirmation on this emerged today during the press event aimed at the launch of Samsung's Galaxy Tab.
Of course, this would be the Android flavor that should arrive on shelves after the Android 3.0 Gingerbread OS is released, but it seems that it would continue on the same road as this platform iteration.
To be more precise, Honeycomb, which should land as Android 3.5, it seems, is expected to pack a great deal of enhancements that would make it fit for tablet PCs.
Basically, it seems that, while Android 2.1 and 2.2 landed on the market with optimizations aimed at smartphones, the upcoming OS flavors would also enhance the experience users receive from tablet PCs.
And it seems that Samsung is set to upgrade the just released Tab to newer flavors of the OS, at least this is what company officials said at slate's launch, the latest news around the Internet suggest.
The mobile phone maker confirmed that it would offer an Android 3.0 Gingerbread software update for its Samsung Galaxy Tab device, but did not unveil plans to deliver an Android 3.5 update as well.
However, JK Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile business, did say that the company would release Android 3.5 Honeycomb-based slates.
This does not come as a surprise, since we already knew that Samsung intends to release more Android-based tablets, while also being interested in tapping into more form factor options for them, including 10-inch devices.
All in all, it seems that the recently rumored Android 3.5 Honeycomb platform version is indeed included in Google's roadmap, even if there are no specific details available on when it might be released on the market.
With Gingerbread landing later this year and with Google usually releasing new OS version about each six months, it would make sense if Honeycomb would arrive sometime in the second quarter of the next year.