Motorola and Verizon Team Up on Android TV Tablet

Motorola is working on an Android-based tablet geared towards watching TV. The device will have a 10-inch screen and is expected to launch as early as autumn. Verizon comes into play with its FiOS digital pay-television service, which will help bring content to the device. Motorola also makes the TV set-top boxes for the FiOS service.

The iPad has changed the landscape of the computing game, providing a middle-ground between a mobile device and a full-fledged computer. It has boosted Apple from number seven to number three in the worldwide market for notebooks and portable computers. Just about every company out there is planning on releasing a similar device sometime this year. This includes names like Microsoft, HP, Google, and RIM.

The key with Motorola’s push is in focusing on integration with TV. Apple was unsuccessful in convincing TV programmers to lower the prices for their shows or alter their model slightly to give Apple an edge. Motorola’s partnership with Verizon gives them a competitive advantage without causing a disturbance in the pay TV business. Verizon already owns a 25 percent share of the U.S. television market and a 29 percent share of broadband customers.

Though Apple was out of the gate first and enjoyed a lot of success with the iPad, there are still flaws that later tablets will look to address. This is no different with Motorola’s device. They will choose to support Flash, which was a hotly debated missing feature of the iPad. This alone will allow it to access 90 percent of videos now on the web. While Apple has made waves by supporting HTML5, it is still limited in what you can watch on the web.

Motorola will make their tablet thinner and lighter while also allowing you to use it as a mobile hotspot, sharing its wireless data connection with other devices. The device will also have front and rear-facing cameras for video conferencing.

Given Motorola’s involvement with the explosion of Android in the cell phone market, it will be interesting to see exactly how they implement a tablet form factor based on the same OS. As we have seen with FaceTime, video conferencing will be an exciting feature, especially if it doesn’t rely on WiFi and is not device-specific. Of course, Motorola, Google and Verizon declined to comment.

via Financial Times, eWeek

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Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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