Google pledges to focus on tablet apps

The latest Google tablets could become market leaders, but only if there are more Android apps available that are optimized for the devices.

As the Google Play Store hits the 700,000-app milestone -- bringing it ever closer to Apple's current total of 750,000, the company's mobile team product manager has stressed that its developer community is to redouble its focus on creating apps optimized for tablets.

In an interview published on The Guardian website October 30, Robert Hamilton said: 'We'd like developers to think more and more about great tablet experiences. There's a lot of really good Android tablets out there now.'

In particular, Google's Nexus 10 tablet boasts the highest resolution screen currently available on any tablet of any size. This puts it in direct competition with the iPad and therefore the key to its success will be offering the same number of tablet-optimized apps that iPad owners take for granted.

Therefore Google's announcement should be seen as a vote of confidence by anyone who is impressed with Google's latest tablet offerings but was unwilling to commit to buying one as the majority of Android apps are simply scaled-up smartphone apps -- something that Apple's VP of Marketing Phil Schiller took great delight in demonstrating during the launch of the iPad Mini on October 23.

However, unlike Microsoft, who committed to hitting the 100,000-app mark for Windows 8 and Windows RT users before February 2013, Google is yet to set any deadline for when this wealth of native tablet apps will start to flow into the Google Play store.