Google Focusing On Tablets With Android 12L, Android 13, Hopes To See Tablet Sales Surpass Laptops

Google talked about the large-screen device space and the possibility of “tablet-first” apps at The Android Show YouTube livestream. Android co-founder and Google’s CTO of tablets Rich Miner points out how the tablet form factor will allow for new use cases. Miner notes that “tablet-first” apps could also be on the horizon, if the market continues to grow at the same rate.

Google launched its first Android tablet more than ten years ago, in 2011. Miner says that “Tablets actually took off and the usage that drove that uptake was largely consumption. Tablets without much investment were good for consumption. The media players, the YouTubes, and other apps worked quite well just to scale up that video on a larger screen”. He added that tablet growth reached a plateau and stayed that way for a long period of time.

Tablet Market Seeing Upward Trend

However, the second half of 2019 saw a dramatic shift in the large-screen tablet market.

The belief is that tablets started to be just much better for things beyond consumption, and were being used for creativity and productivity and there was a need for more screens and devices to support that.

And then came the dreaded pandemic the following year. This boosted tablet sales, with students and professionals studying and working from home. Miner went on to pit tablets against laptops, saying that he believes that “there’s going to be a crossover point at some point in the not-too-distant future where there are more tablets sold annually than there are laptops. I think once you cross over that point, you’re not going to be coming back”.

Tablet-First Apps

Miner highlights that in 2020, tablet sales came close to that of laptops, and the trend could continue post-COVID. He adds that developers should prepare for tablet-specific apps by taking advantage of the tablet’s extra screen real estate. Moreover, they should check out Google’s latest Jetpack Libraries that were introduced with Android 12L. Most importantly, he talks about developers building new tablet-first apps.