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Ok, now that I have catched your attention, let me explain myself: I have just received a call from a client that wanted to develop an applicacion for iOS and Android, both for smartphones and tablets. My answer has been: developing now for Android tablets is kind of suicidal. Why?

• Right now the Android SDK is splitted in two versions: Gingerbread (2.3.x) aimed at smartphones, HoneyComb (3.x) aimed at tablets. Google was forced to do this in order to respond to Apple's iPad, so the Android platform wouldn't fall behind iOS in tablet support. This creates a nightmare for developers wanting to create an application supporting both smartphones and applets. This is expected to change with Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.x) expected for Q4 2011. Anyway, I wouldn't say it's safe to develop for Android before Q2 2012 if you want to target both smartphones and tablets, once the dust is settled, the platform has minimally matured, and we have some numbers about market quota of the different Android versions.
• Android is under heavy fire in several fronts:
  • Apple has several lawsuits against Samsung, targeting Samsung Galaxy Tab, probably the flagship among the Android tablets. In the latest coup de théâtre in the Apple-Samsung affair, Apple has successfully blocked Samsung from showing off Galaxy Tab 7.7 at IFA in Germany, throwing a bit more uncertainty on the future of the Samsung tablet, and the Android tablet market, after the Australia affair.
  • Oracle wants its piece of the Android cake, and won't let Google keep it for them, due to its use of Java as the language of choice for the Android platform, and the creation of an alternative Java Virtual Machine called Dalvik. I doubt Oracle will want to kill the golden egg machine that Android may become, but for sure they won't miss the opportunity to cash in thanks to their adquisition of Sun and all of their Java related technologies.
• Fragmentation, fragmentation, fragmentation. The openness of Android may be one of its biggest problems, as we have a myriad of devices ranging from low end don't-use-for-anything-but-calling phones to high end control-your-rockets-from-here smartphones. Google has acknowledged the problem, but right now we don't have a clear solution for this issue. So you have to develop for Android, and hope your application will be able to run and display properly on all the devices out there. And of course, if you intend to be serious about user support, expect to invest a lot on CRM due to users complaining about your application not running in their devices and making low ratings of your application in the Market.
• And finally, if you don't have enough with all of this, Google abandons its position of neutral player in the Android market, and buys Motorola. Of course they have acquired Motorola to get hold of their patent portfolio and be able to fight back the ongoing lawsuits. Of course they will remain open, and Motorola will be just one of their licensees. Of course Motorola will be run as a separate business. And of course, all the other Android devices manufacturers aren't nervous about the move, are they?

So don't get me wrong. I still think Android is quite well positioned to get hold of our home devices, our car, our smartphones and tablets. But I don't see that coming in the near future, and I would feel a bit uneasy if I had to put all my eggs in the Android basket taking into account the current circumstances. So be sensible, and at least don't develop only for Android.