Motorola has taken a jab at Apple’s iPad in a new video trailer for an not-yet-announced Android-based tablet the company plans to unveil in January of 2011 at CES. In the video, which was released on YouTube, Motorola takes a look at tablets throughout history (starting with ancient Egyptian tablets), and offers mostly amusing captions to comment on each one.
The “tablets” shown include:
- Ancient Egyptian tablets: “Good graphics, but weight makes for difficult portability”
- The Ten Commandments: “Excellent durability, but zero flexibility (can’t edit)”
- The Rosetta Stone: “Multi-lingual support, but low resolution screen”
- Mayan Inscriptions: “Successful Latin American distribution, but rumored 2012 self-destruct feature”
- GRiDPad: “Launched as inventory tool, but 20MB hard drive limits inventory to just 12 items”
- iPad: “It’s like a giant iPhone, but…it’s like a giant iPhone”
- Galaxy Tab: “Android OS, but Android OS…for a phone”
The video then shows a tablet on a pedestal draped by a cover, and a honeybee (symbolizing “Honeycomb,” a future version of Android) flies into frame, and then out again with the closing line “CES 2011.”
Honeycomb — which will be either Android OS 2.4 or 3.0) is expected to be launched in 2011, and it’s the first version of the Android OS that Google has planned for tablets. Android tablets that have hit the market (like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab) use Android OS 2.2 “Froyo,” a version that even Google has asked not be used for tablets as it was not built with the tablet form factor in mind.
Motorola’s ad, therefore, hints that it will use Honeycomb, and therefore be better than the Galaxy Tab, or Apple’s iPhone, which was released in April of 2010.
The ad, quickly made the rounds at tech sites and Android fan sites, and has sparked much Honeycomb giddiness and anticipation in Android fans.
Motorola Android Tablet Teaser