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Google wanted to sell 10m Android tablets a year in 2011, have 33 percent marketshare

Google wanted to sell 10m Android tablets a year in 2011, have 33 percent marketshare

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According to a presentation given by Andy Rubin in July 2010, Google expected to sell some 10 million Android tablets a year in 2011 and 2012 and capture up to a third of the entire tablet market.

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honeycomb prototype
honeycomb prototype

According to a presentation given by Andy Rubin in July 2010, Google expected to sell some 10 million Android tablets a year in 2011 and 2012 and capture up to a third of the entire tablet market. Those are some lofty numbers, especially considering Google and Motorola hadn't yet shipped the Xoom tablet, which at the time was still a prototype device codenamed Stingray. (It's also notable that Google used a Morgan Stanley estimate that the entire tablet market would be 46m units in 2012; Apple dominates the tablet market with over 67 million iPads sold thus far.) Google also expected Android tablets to contribute up to $110m in search revenue in 2011 and $220m in 2012 — goals almost certainly missed as Android tablets have floundered in the market.

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The information came out today in the Google / Oracle trial as part of the same slide deck which revealed the first-ever Android revenue numbers — and taken as a whole, it showcases Google's aggressive optimism that all of its initiatives will be hugely successful.

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The slides also reveal some early UI designs for what would become Android 3.0 Honeycomb, as shown above; the widgets and iconography are much more cartoon-like than the final design, which would eventually form the basis of the "Holo" theme used in Android 4.0. It's also interesting to note that this presentation was given just two months after Matias Duarte joined Google as Android's User Experience Director; he told us at CES 2011 that he had only minimal influence over Honeycomb's aesthetic — a statement borne out by these screenshots.

Google's slides on Android quarterly report in the Oracle patent case

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