Just for the record, there are ZERO tablet apps for Android tablets. There's featured apps, sure. They're not tablet apps though. They're flat out phone apps, tweaked to somewhat work on a tablet. The iPad has specific tablet apps designed for it, with a specific tablet section for apps, with thousands of tablet apps. Android has zero apps specifically designed from the bottom up for a tablet.
This was already covered by one of the Android webblogs some weeks ago, if not Androidcentral itself.
The total lack of apps for tablets is also why a lot of them crash most of the time. Heck, I can't even download the official Facebook app for my Xoom anymore since apparently it's phone only.
Zero? Really? You can't be serious.
"..specifically design from the bottom up for a tablet..." OK, sorry, but I've got to point out the
profound lack of understanding of coding, the linux kernal, and android specifically, that this comment represents.
No App is written "from the bottom up" for a particular platform, no matter what the blogs you read say.
As an electrical engineer since the mid 80's, working with a major semi supplier based in Silicon Valley, I am constantly amazed at what passes for tech knowledge these days. It's the era of the blind leading the blind. As soon as someone has enough info to be dangerous, they start a blog and spread copious amounts of disinformation due to their ignorance. This is where your strange/false expectations for a tablet platform come from, IMHO.
I'll try this in layman's terms, but if you'd like to get specific, feel free to ask a specific quetion. Android is built on the Linux kernal, which contains many of the hardware drivers. Linux is the "foundation", so to speak that the house is built on. It contains the main plumbing and other hardware interfaces the platform needs to support. It is compiled for a particular set of hardware. On that, are the "studs" of the house, the general libraries including the specific Android libraries. The application framework can be thought of as the sheetrock walls, paint, windows and doors of the house. The furniture, wall hangings and window dressings are the apps themselves.
So... suggesting there are no "bottom up" tablet apps is like saying there are no dining room tables specifically built "bottom up" for only Split Ranch homes. It's a statement that demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding about what a house is, but yes, that statement would be a correct statement. To my knowledge, there are no dining room tables specifically built for Split Ranch homes. Just as there are no apps built "bottom up" for tablets... or phones for that matter!
The reason you don't see a separate tablet section in the Market is not because there are no tablet apps. It is because Google's intention is to not have dual markets. They want one market. Google has enabled the ability for the market to determine if an app is appropriate for our hardware and the ability for different versions of an app to be nested under a single app page within the market. They have also included a zoom function in Honeycomb for small screened apps. This is a bandaid for apps that have been written for a phone (small screen only). These small apps will always exist. Google will not dictate that developers make large screen versions of every app. So Google has made it a bit easier for tablet users who want to use one of these apps.
As for full blown Android apps which feature all the bells and whistles of a web home page, you'll be waiting a very long time for that, I think. Let's take Google+ for example. To use Google+, you need to be connected to the internet. If you are already connected to the internet, what would be the benefit of having an Android app that looks, feels, and is, exactly like the website? It's ridiculous. What you really want is a bookmark, but you are fixated on an app... again, probably because some ignorant blogger told you so.
The reason apps crash is because Honeycomb is still a work in progress. It was rushed out to production, nobody can argue that. In fact, I was told by an associate at Motorola that the XOOM was ready to be released for production before Christmas 2010, but they had to wait for Google. This makes sense, because clearly, it was rushed to market. As time goes on, compatibility issues will be ironed out. It's not a 'built for tablets" issue.
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