I won’t call theirs MultiWindow Android.
A forum post at 1Pad [Google English] claims to have two photos of an AllWinner-based tablet running windowed Android, with the further claim that AllWinner is working on this to bring to its partners — including those tablets using its dual-core A20 CPU(!).
Here are the photos:
The top window is a browser, the second one looks like a forum, the third one a news site, and the bottom one is a game.
Over to the right is a circular button nearly identical to the Sorting button Rockchip is using for its MultiWindow Android.
I can’t tell what tablet that is. The wallpaper isn’t one that’s a default for current iPad Mini clones using the AllWinner A31s.
If this is true, it will instill some new life in the AllWinner platform — at least in terms of competing against Rockchip-based tablets. On the other hand, the AllWinner A31s has an AnTuTu score that’s about one-third lower than the Rockchip 3188. That makes me wonder just how well such a windowing feature will work on that platform.
Also, if this is true, Google really needs to rip it off add it to Android 5.0 as a standard for all Android tablets. Now imagine if Google did that — then imagine it on an Atom-based Android tablet. The entire tablet market would undergo an earthquake of epic proportions — the iPad would be stuck with its one-app-full-screen model and Windows 8 would be stuck with its pathetic two-partial-screens model. Android tablet sales would explode.
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
What if Google goes the other direction, and walks away from Android because they have lost control of it and are not making money from it? A shift to using Chrome as the OS would not be too hard for them. They would leave Amazon dangling on a forked branch and needing to either continue development of their project or (unlikely) jump to a new OS (Linux based, I’d think).
The Chinese would then take Android and aggressively push their own Android OS … oh, wait, they’re already doing that!
I am less and less sure that Android is working for Google. Chromecast and Google TV would seem to point the way for them to a more tightly controlled ecosystem in which they can gather and monetize user data, and sell products and services.
Daniel Eran Dilger speculated the dumping of Android:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/29/google-appears-ready-to-ditch-android-over-its-intellectual-property-issues
I’m not so sure. Let’s see what Google does with Android 5.0 first.
I don’t see Google dropping android any time soon. Google has a tight grip on the revenue for digital content of the majority of android phones in the highest grossing economies. While I do believe that Samsung will eventually branch away from Google play (they’ve already stated they won’t be doing it for KLP 5.0), I think that most android manufacturers don’t have the strength or desire to pull away. Also, Google just bought Motorola AND released a phone under the new management. Chrome OS is bringing in very little revenue (laptops with thin margins?) compared to android and would require the development of new markets and devices to reach any sort of reasonable revenue for Google. Google wouldn’t want to lose whatever amount of software control they have over the cellphone/tablet market which is one of the largest markets of today and the future.
Also, to address Richard Day, I think a shift to chrome OS in mobile computing would be harder than you’d expect. Chrome OS is based around X11 which is the window manager used by most of linux. Developing a new graphics stack is incredibly expensive and difficult to do (see Ubuntu for phones and canonical). Android’s very much ready for prime time surface flinger, growing app catalog, and continuing evolution points to the fact that android is actually increasing in popularity and functionality and that there definitely is no room for building a new OS for smartphones and tablets.
Multiwindow android is a pretty cool new development, but definitely doesn’t mark any sort of unheard of customization. Android has had floating windows implemented in source since android 3.0 honeycomb and rockchip merely refined the system and implemented it into a rom (not saying it’s not a useful, good, or impressive feature). If you look at developments from teams such as Paranoid android you will see a different implementation of the code used for multiwindow in the form of HALO.
As for amazon creating a linux branch for their devices, I think it is possible as they already maintain one for the Kindle Paperwhite. However, it is not beneficial for them to switch away from android as they now market kindles as tablets, not e-readers. Getting developers to create apps for a NEW linux touch based OS would be a nightmare and would likely lead to wasted money and the downfall of the kindle.
Google pursues the development of Chrome OS as a simple web browsing platform for a “modern netbook”. Chrome OS is somewhat open source (Chromium OS) and is not a project with the aim of landing on tablets or phones. I would also like to point out that the chromecast doesn’t run chrome OS but rather just the bare minimum bit of linux which will allow for pulling data streams (with DRM).
Google’s project strategy is to throw lots of things at the wall and see what sticks. Once a product sticks they then begin to find ways to monetize from it. Since android has stuck (quite hard), Google will continue to find ways to make their proprietary gapps appealing to manufacturers. Samsung may want to jump off the android bandwagon, but it’s going to be hard for both companies and I don’t think any other manufacturer would follow suit.
Wow, I just wrote more than I expected. Oh and good news mike, I ordered a chuwi v88 sporting the new smart cover! I used your blog to decide on exactly what I wanted.
OK, just finished writing real not astroturfing review of my Chuwi V88s, feel free to link my blog :-)
link is included under my name here
As you will see in a post I’m doing, MultiWindow Android upgrade BETA is now available. Oddly, it’s supposed to work with the V88s too — despite it having just 1GB of RAM!
I don’t really see use for multiwindow for me on such small display without keyboard/mouse and switching apps is fast anyway, so what’s the point of multiwindow on tablet without anything connected? I can imagine it’s useful with using external display and connected mouse/keyboard
I have a need for it. I’m never doing just one thing on my PC and even with a small screen I wouldn’t want to be stuck in one-app-full-screen like an iPad.
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