Friday, March 05, 2010

Android computer

So the previous post is an interesting lead-in for speculation about what the impact will be of Android tablets. There was lots of speculation before the iPad was introduced about it. Clearly, some of my colleagues are very excited and optimistic about what they see as the potential for educational adoption of the iPad.

I have seen reports that both Dell and HP are developing hardware that will run on the Android OS. This week I was talking with someone from Dell who was bemoaning the delay in getting their Android platform out. At the CoSN conference I was talking with a Verizon rep about the lack of educational apps for their Android smartphones. I was told the developers are well aware of that lack and were working hard to develop the apps. (Of course what else could he say?)

Will the price point for the iPad insure that HP and Dell will price their tablets to be competitive? Will the Android developers produce useful educational apps in time to help HP and Dell be seen as potential competition to the iPad in the education environment?

Demise of the Desktop?

Elliott Masie in his March 5, Learning TRENDS newsletter posts:

Google Predicts Demise of the Desktop: John Herlihy, Google's VP of Global Ad Operations, has claimed that desktop PCs would become "irrelevant" in three years down the line. Addressing the Digital Landscapes Conference in Dublin, Herlihy predicted a bleak future for desktop PCs, as smartphones, netbooks, along with other gadgets are evidently gaining grounds over them. In his keynote speech, Herlihy said: "In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs". This echoes Google CEO Eric Schmidt's comments Global sales of smartphones and other high-end handheld devices have been soaring at a rapid pace and would very soon surpass sales of traditional PCs." This has huge implications for the learning field - as we look towards supporting learning through a new and broader range of mobile based resources. Learning designers will need to refocus their design sensibilities towards a smaller footprint and very different type of learning application.
And if this is true, what does it mean for K-12?