Associated Press Eric Schmidt of Google has said his company is working on a tablet computer.As Ashlee Vance and I report in a Monday article, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Microsoft and a suite of other companies are hard at work on products that they hope will be iPad killers.
Apple will most likely swat at most of these companies like a short-tempered old man whacking mosquitoes on a hot summer night. But when it comes to Google’s coming slate computer, it might take more than a swat.
As we reported in the story:
Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, told friends at a recent party in Los Angeles about the new device, which would exclusively run the Android operating system. People with direct knowledge of the project — who did not want to be named because they said they were unauthorized to speak publicly about the device — said the company had been experimenting in “stealth mode” with a few publishers to explore delivery of books, magazines and other content on a tablet.
Mr. Schmidt didn’t stop there. He acknowledged that “Google might not get it right the first time,” and said that Apple probably wouldn’t either, briefly alluding to some better features coming with the second generation of the iPad. But he said both companies would have “the next two to three years to figure it out.”
According to a guest at the party, Mr. Schmidt offered one other piece of information: the Google device will run Adobe Flash content and games.
This is good news for Adobe, but not for Apple.
Apple dealt a major blow to Adobe last week when it refused to allow iPhone applications into its App Store that were built with Adobe software tools.
On Friday, Adobe responded to this move in a blog post by Kevin Lynch, its chief technology officer. Mr. Lynch played down its impact on the company’s products, adding:
Secondly, multiscreen is growing beyond Apple’s devices. This year we will see a wide range of excellent smartphones, tablets, smartbooks, televisions and more coming to market and we are continuing to work with partners across this whole range to enable your content and applications to be viewed, interacted with and purchased.
Another person who has been briefed on the Google slate project, but asked not to be named, said that Google was still wrestling with several parts of the project, but that it would most likely come with the Chrome Web browser from Google.
Google’s big push to consumers and developers with the device will be to offer a completely open platform — an approach that runs counter to Apple’s closed App Store model.