Asus retracts statement its tablets will ship with Android 3.0

Just stumbled across this and thought others might be interested. So, is there anyone with plans for 3.0 at this point?

Also, there's a video linked below of the slider form factor (slide in/out keyboard) that's kind of neat.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...honeycomb-late

ANDROID 3.0 HONEYCOMB will not be the operating system running on three Asus tablets announced at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, even when they finally tip up months later than expected.

Asus marketing specialist John Swatton told The INQUIRER late today that because the company did not know the detailed technical specifications requirements of the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, it could not confirm that Honeycomb will be the tablets' OS.

He also explained that the tablets will not be released until some time in the third quarter. The Asus announcement at CES had said that they would be launched in the second quarter.

At CES Asus announced that the 10.1-inch Slider, Transformer and 7.1-inch Memo tablets would all use Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb. Asked why Asus announced at CES that the tablets would use Honeycomb, Swatton said, "that was a mistake."

And despite that delay of months, into the third quarter, the operating system when the tablets are shipped will be Android 2.3 Gingerbread, Swatton explained.

Android tablets that don't have phone functionality can't use the Android Marketplace, so companies such as Toshiba and Archos are creating their own app stores.

None of these Asus tablets will have phone functionality, so they will need an Asus app store. Swatton told The INQUIRER that it is still "to be confirmed" whether these Asus tablets will have their own app store.

You can watch The INQUIRER's Asus Eee Slider tablet video demo that we captured at the educational technology conference BETT earlier today. That Asus Eee Slider tablet demo unit was running Android 2.2 Froyo.

More interesting information. The only tablet I have read about that is supposed to ship with Android 3.0 is the Motorola XOOM tablet (the web site as of just now). Android 3.0 is prominently featured on the Motorola web site description of the XOOM. Who knows if and when that will really happen????

All this goes to remind us to be patient. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for EE Froyo.