ROI time
An analyst has claimed NVIDIA's Tegra 2 SoC has been made the reference design for the next version of Google's Android mobile OS, which is codenamed Honeycomb, will probably be version 3.0, and will be the first version to be optimised for tablets.
There are several benefits to getting cozy with Google in the mobile phone space; look at the HTC Desire. Not only did its development benefit from the work HTC did on the Nexus One, but it was the first (after the Nexus) to get Android 2.2, presumably because of this head start. As a result the Desire has probably been HTC's most successful smartphone.
This benefit is set to be illustrated once more when, as has been rumoured, the Samsung Galaxy S - on which the Nexus S is based - is the first to move to Android 2.3.
But while the Nexus phones are effectively reference designs made available for purchase, we're not aware of Google publicly dictating the chip it considers to offer optimal compatibility with a version of Android. The reason it may be different this time is that Google will be acutely aware of the head start Apple has in tablets, and that it needs to improve of things like the Galaxy Tab if it wants to recover some ground.
So, while it won't openly admit as much, Google is moving in the direction Microsoft has taken for WP7 - to prescribe the hardware. While all WP7 phones right now have to run Qualcomm chips, Google will be saying that only tablets running Tegra 2 will be optimised for Honeycomb.
We assume the reason Tegra 2 - which is currently pretty far from ubiquitous in mobile devices - has been chosen is graphics. As you would expect, this will be the main differentiator for Tegra SoCs over the competition, and if Google wants Honeycomb tablets to entice people away from the iPad, they need to be ten inch and have an impressive GUI and gaming quality.
This is also the only reason we can imagine for the other assertion from this same analyst - that Samsung has put in a great big order for Tegra 2s. Samsung has a perfectly good chip of its own in the Hummingbird, with the Orion on the way. But it's also an OEM and if the future Android tablet action is best served by using Tegra 2 chips, then it's compelled to buy them.
And if even Samsung is having to buy Tegra 2s in order to join the Honeycomb tablet party, then we must assume the likes of Motorola, HTC, LG and SE will also need to move in that direction for their own tablets. Finally some good news for NVIDIA, which bet the farm on Tegra but received scant ROI after mistakenly hitching its wagon to Windows Mobile.
