Android Tablet Bingo

The Android tablet market is essentially a nascent force right now in consumer electronics, a force just about to spring into a range of shapes, sizes and colours.

The Apple iPad line has had the jump on the Android world for three years, but its monolithic design philosophy produces gadgets so (beautifully) homogenous that perhaps their best metaphor would be a Zen rock garden compared to the wider botanical-gardens approach of the Android community.

Tablets in General Versus Gaming Tablets

Already, over the past couple of years, there have been many new non-Apple tablet designs, and some rather innovative. Although none of them have stuck like iPad's simplicity, we think this design-ingenuity will lead to a diversity of Android-based machines better able to meet consumer demand for gaming tablets.

The iPad has already been hailed as the very best mobile device for playing games like online bingo, but this has happened in a vacuum. Just wait until Android and even the new Windows 8 OS launch some stiff competition!

Apple's three-years' head start as been enough time for the iPad to evolve twice, and, to roll out something this year that is arguably the most important feature of a tablet-computer: the world's best mobile display.

The Heart of a Tablet is on the Outside

Apple's super-concentrated pixel technology is called Retina because the resolution is finer than human eyes can distinguish (meaning: the human eye cannot see dots, and diagonal lines are smooth). The top Android-based tablet designers must now meet the challenge of matching Retina's HD quality, perhaps even surpassing it. But matching the more-or-less settled price points that Apple has established (£400-$800, depending upon options) will also prove tricky.

Beyond that hurdle, Android tablets have a great advantage over Apple in terms of their potential to become more mainstream than the iPad's cliquish following, and, as we suggested, provide better gaming options (even if just at the level of tablet-shapes).

Apple senses this brooding pressure, which is why there have been rumours that its current leadership may defy the will of deceased mastermind Steve Jobs, who pooh-poohed the idea of a mini-iPad. Perhaps Jobs could not imagine any real competition from the growing Android establishment, but now, Apple executives may be rethinking. (Asian parts suppliers have leaked hints at the scaled-down, more affordable model.)

Bingo Apps Are Still Behind Bingo-Ready Tablets

In terms of bingo apps themselves, Apple and Android are currently at a bit of a stalemate. That's because bingo websites usually offer free app-downloads for both Android and iOS. If a site offers a mobile-bingo app, then so far, in other words, it has been customary to offer the game for both systems. The reason for this is that the big game makers used by most sites (Playtech, Microgaming, Spin3, Interplay, et al) provide applications for both platforms.

Although there are so many choices already, the world of table-bingo gaming still relies on smartphone apps for use on tablets. The current games are scalable to the larger screens of tablet-PCs (around ten inches, roughly double the size of phones).

Stay tuned here, for breaking news and announcements as more Android bingo apps especially designed for iPads and Android tablets, respectively, are released. For now, we'll give you the down-low on which apps lead the market in these early days!