In the wake of the huge success of Apple’s iPad, Motorola and Verizon are working on a tablet that could change how television is watched. The device, based on Google’s open-source Android operating system, will allow users to watch cable TV on its 10-inch screen and could be available in the U.S. as early as this fall.
According to a report in Tuesday’s Financial Times attributed to “people briefed on the plans,” the tablet is intended to work with Verizon’s lightning-fast FiOS fiber optic-based cable and Internet system. Motorola makes the set-top boxes for FiOS.
An ‘End Run’ Around Cable TV
The companies intend to hit the iPad right in its vulnerabilities. One of those is the iPad’s integration with cable TV.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted that it’s been “difficult for Apple to break into the cable infrastructure,” which could allow the groundbreaking iPad to add cable TV as one of is programming streams along with music, e-books and apps.
Apple has run into problems working out deals with leading television-programming sources. Instead, he noted, Apple has had to do an “end run” around cable TV in the home through downloadable TV episodes.
The Motorola-Verizon tablet, Rubin said, could provide a “value-added” component to Verizon’s marketing mix, but he doubts it would be replicated any time soon by other cable companies because of the existing infrastructure.
Mobility Converging with Home
Another perceived iPad vulnerability is Adobe Flash, which is widely used across the web and is growing in its presence on mobile devices. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has steadfastly refused to allow Flash on the iPad, and the company has been pushing open-source HTML5 instead. This has been a boost for HTML5, but has left many software developers unhappy, since they’re already created and want to use Flash…