I saw an inexpensive Android tablet and decided to get one for my nephew for Christmas.  He had expressed interest in an iPod Touch or a computer.  He primarily wanted the iPod for the games but I wanted to get him something he would use for more than that.  I knew that many games and apps are available for the Android operating system.  That and the touchscreen sold me on the idea of getting my nephew an Android tablet.

I ordered an Augen GenTouch78.  It’s a 7 inch device that runs Android 2.1.  I read a lot of reviews and only saw minor complains (i.e. reflexive touch screen as opposed to multitouch) but nothing major that would have prepared me for what I was going to receive.  It took me a while to realize that there were no Google applications (GMail, GTalk, YouTube) included on the device.  While Android itself is open source, Google’s programs that run on Android are not.  Manufacturers of Android devices need to license the apps in order to include them in their builds.  Augen had not done that and in fact had gotten into trouble with earlier releases of the GenTouch78 for including Google’s apps.

I also read that none of the inexpensive tablet manufacturers have licensed Google’s apps thus far.  This also includes Market which is the official app store for the Android environment so not only can you not have Google apps but that pretty much excludes most other popular apps as well.  There are certainly alternative app stores but none of them have anything close to the more than 100,000 apps listed in Google’s Market.  I looked all over the internet for direct downloads of apps but rarely found anything worth downloading.  In fact, most links to Android apps link directly to the Market app store.

After practically pulling my hair out trying to prepare the device for my nephew, I decided that I could not give it to him.  He would not have been able to do most things he wanted to do: namely download games and watch videos.  I ended up giving him a netbook with Ubuntu 10.04 LTE installed which he loves.

I still have the GenTouch78 and have been playing with it and am now trying to find apps for myself (i.e. Twitter client, Facebook app, Flickr, etc.).  There is hardly anything outside of Market.  It is clear to me that Android is nothing without its Market app store.  I had considered an Archos tablet for myself but it also does not have access to Market without doing a mod.  Clearly I had not read enough beforehand but that was because I had no idea that Android could come without the Google apps especially Market.  How long will it be before Google gives tablets its blessing?  Or will they?  Until then it might be wise to hold off on buying one, especially a cheap one, unless you really want to get hands on in trying to make it work.

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