Android Honeycomb requires minimum dual-core processors | Consumer Electronics Show | CES Las Vegas

Although Google hasn’t confirmed hardware specifications for its tablet-optimized version of Android (a.k.a., Honeycomb), reports from hardware manufacturers out of this week’s Consumer Electronics Show are confirming rumors that Honeycomb will require dual-core processors. This shouldn’t be a problem for many of the tablets being announced this week with everything from dual-core Atom processors to Nvidia Tegra 2 chips to Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragons making appearances.

What about the Samsung Galaxy Tab or those cheap Chinese tablets that tech junkies have grabbed up as disposable iPad alternatives? They’re stuck at Android 2.3 if they’re lucky enough to get a system update or savvy enough to root the device and upgrade themselves.

The new dual-core chips from Nvidia and Qualcomm, although not widely reviewed or benchmarked (expect that to change as many devices bearing them are being showcased at CES this week), seem to have all the right specs to let Android tablets and high-end smartphones take on the iPad without breaking a sweat (at least in terms of performance). Gaming, 3D, and Flash-heavy websites will all be able to take off with these new processors (and their tightly integrated components from GPS to WiFi).

However, one has to wonder if Android, like many Linux distributions, has foregone lean and mean in favor of rich features and gadgets for consumers. Larry Dignan asked the other day, “What happens if Honeycomb sucks?” Has Google actually pulled a Windows Vista, adding so much eye candy and background nonsense that a dual-core processor is necessary? And will it take a second generation tablet-optimized Android iteration to recover performance?

Unfortunately, although pricing on these new dual-core, Honeycomb-ready tablets will undoubtedly be competitive with iPad, the system requirement will, for now, preclude the cheaper entrants into the market from running a tablet-optimized OS. This won’t concern the technorati and early adopters, but tablets have the opportunity to be a serious leveling force in a world that increasingly requires rich Internet connectivity from the palm of one’s hand.

Moore’s law ensures that cheap dual-core tablets will get here sooner than later, but if Google confirms the dual-core requirement, then it’s effectively delaying the transformational effect that really cheap tablets could have in the way we view personal computing.

Motorola's Android Honeycomb to be Disclosed at CES

Motorola's Android Honeycomb to be Disclosed at CES

Hey, guess what? We're going to get another tablet at CES in January. No huge surprise there--we're anticipating an utter deluge of the devices at the show. Motorola is seemingly attempting to undercut some of those last minute iPad/Samsung Galaxy Christmas purchase with a little teaser of its own announcement.
The company used its @MotoMobile Twitter page to kick off speculation, tweeting, "Might want to hold off on that tablet purchase until 2011." The page linked to a tongue-in-cheek CGI tour of the "evolution of tablets," including such detours as the Rosetta Stone ("Good graphics, but weight makes for difficult portability") and the Ten Commandments ("Excellent durability, but zero flexibility").

The company also used the occasion to take potshots at the competition, the iPad ("It's like a giant iPhone, but...it's like a giant iPhone") and the Samsung Galaxy Tab ("Android OS, but Android OS...for a phone"). The video finishes on a shot of what we're led to assume is the shrouded unannounced Motorola tablet.

Not a lot of info here, but between the Samsung comment and the fact that Motorola has had some recent success with Android, as of late, we can probably assume that the thing will run Google's mobile--the tablet version. The goofy little animated bee also hints at the use of the Android "Honeycomb" build. As for a name? The Motorola Evolution, perhaps?