Google Android Honeycomb First Impressions

KOMPAS.com - Honeycomb is the operating system that Google hopes will finally see it challenging Apple in terms of user interface. Although it was designed with Motorola’s Xoom in mind – to such an extent that employees from both companies were co-located – Google’s David Burke describes the experience as “about as pure Google as you’re going to get”.

The device has no physical buttons on the front – all of them are virtual, so they’re always on the bottom left of the screen. Motorola says this means “you never get lost”. A barometer means the device has a sensor for height, so it’s a matter of time before an app is designed specifically for parachutists.

With a dual-core Nvidia processor, the Xoom combines impressive speed with Google’s new interface. Motorola said it will add some features of its own, but the bulk of the innovation appears to be from Google’s end here. When the product launches later this year, it will be down to Motorola to distinguish Xoom from the scores of other tablets that will emerge running Honeycomb.

Tabbed browsing and bookmark syncing with Chrome, access to Google books, a 3D video wall to show off YouTube clips, a two-pane Gmail interface are all welcome additions, but also requirements to compete with the gloss of the iPad.

Where the interface impresses particularly – a slick solution to task switching brings up a neat list of running applications, for instance – it is in greasing wheels that already exist rather than introducing radical new possibilities.

With that in mind, price will be key. According to Motorola, at “the price level we’re launching it at, it will be successful”.

That is likely to be the case – but the company makes another interesting point. Their popular Defy handset started out with a problem: users drop phones and they bbreak, so Motorla made a more rugged phone.

“We started with the consumer not with the technology,” said Motorola. With that in mind, Google must make sure that they – and not Apple – begin to identify the points at which technology causes a problem for consumers and come up with decent solutions. So let’s start drawing up a list…