Google has confirmed to BusinessWeek that it will delay the long-awaited release of the complete source code for Android Honeycomb, citing and reiterating its intentions for the Android version to be used on tablets and never intended to be ported to any other devices such as smartphone hardware until the company feels its ready to be released and properly ported. As a result, the platform source will be limited to device manufacturers for the foreseeable future.
Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes and improves on Android favorites such as widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization. While we’re excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones. Until then, we’ve decided not to release Honeycomb to open source. We’re committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it’s ready.
Another reason for the delay may lie with the level of completion of Android Honeycomb as a functioning operating system, as the Motorola XOOM tablet is the first Android Honeycomb tablet on the market, with many customer complaints based around ease of use, stability and speed affecting satisfaction as well as the homebrew ROM community porting the currently available build from image dumps, with varying levels of success and functionality across different hardware with the goal of using Honeycomb as yet another option for smartphones.
