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Rugged Android Handhelds and Tablets

While Android and Apple's iOS rule consumer smartphones and tablets, the situation is far less clear in vertical markets. Will Microsoft continue to play a role, or will it be all Apple and Android? (by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

The tablets and handhelds listed in the righthand column on this page are rugged/vertical market devices available with Android. Android is the operating system platform that successfully emulated Apple's ground-breaking iOS with its capacitive multi-touch interface that allowed for effortless panning, zooming, rotating, etc., Apple's "apps" infrastructure, and even the hardware and software layout of Apple products.

Android, however, is no mere copy. It came from people who knew a lot about mobile operating systems. The man behind the project was Andy Rubin who had worked at Apple, Magic Cap, WebTV and then Danger, where they developed the HipTop internet phone. Google bought Android in 2005 and the platform is now handled by the Open Handset Alliance. In just a few years, Android has become by far the dominant smartphone OS. Android had a tougher job on the tablet side where for several years it trailed the Apple iPad by a considerable margin.

Android offers a number of opportunities and challenges in vertical markets.

The opportunity lies in the fact that Android has managed to become the de-facto standard in non-Apple smartphones. Literally billions already know how to use Android devices, sharply reducing training needs. And Google is offering the use of Android for free. In price-sensitive markets, not having to pay a license fee can make or break a product.

Among Android's challenges are legal issues, version fragmentation and Google's increasingly heavy-handed presence on al Android devices. Versions fragmentation is a problem because it makes the Android market nowhere near as cohesive as it appears to be. Older versions are being left behind and often cannot be upgraded, developers are forced to adapt to multiple versions, and so on. Among legal issues have been Microsoft's success in extracting license fees from Android vendors, a massive Oracle patent infringement lawsuit against Google, and seemingly endless suits between Apple and major Android vendors. Fortunately, as of late 2021, most of the law suits seem to have been settled.

Overall, while the operating platform race is pretty much over in consumer smartphones, it's still unclear which OS will come out on top in mobile computing on the enterprise/rugged handheld computer and on the tablet sides. For high-end tablets, Windows 10 remains a good and safe bet. For ruggedized versions of consumer tablets, the iPad's ongoing success and Microsoft's surface tablets have invited a cottage industry of rugged cases. Initially it didn't look like Microsoft's Surface tablets were going anywhere, but they became a sizable business. All platforms depend on whether developers and customers consider them reliable, dependable and, most of all, secure platforms.

As of late 2021 the initially small number of Android-based rugged mobile devices has grown in leaps and bounds since its beginnings around 2012. While initially manufacturers hedged their bets by offering some of their devices in both Microsoft Windows and Android versions, Android has been gathering considerable steam in tablets over the past several years. However, we still see growing strength on the Windows side as well. Mobile computing historians may recall a similar situation three decades ago when, until Microsoft prevailed, pen computers were offered with either PenPoint or Windows for Pen Computing (though Android abviously did not encounter PenPoint's fate).

The background of Android's vertical market emergence

For many years, almost all vertical, enterprise and industrial market tablets were running some version of Microsoft Windows. Even when new consumer market PCs were sold with Windows 8/8.1 and then Windows 10, in the vertical markets tablets and notebooks were still offered with a variety of Microsoft operating systems. Most stayed with Windows 7 long after Windows 10 was introduced, and many came with various embedded versions of Windows. Some came with Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10, but also had a Windows 7 "downgrade" option. The latter "loophole" was finally closed when Intel's "Skylake" 6th generation of Core processors was the last one to still support older Windows operating systems. Starting with the 7th gen "Kaby Lake" processors, only Windows 10 was supported.

On the handheld side of things, for several years the situation was needlessly complicated and uncertain. That's because while the great majority of all consumer smartphones run Android (and premium smartphones iOS), a large number number of vertical market handhelds continued with the ancient Windows Mobile/Windows Embedded Handheld, waiting for Microsoft to finally make up its mind about the future of its small system's OS.

Almost inexplicably, Microsoft never offered an upgrade path for its older small device operating systems to Windows Mobile. Windows Phone 7 turned out to be totally consumer-oriented and not backward-compatible with older Windows Mobile and Windows CE applications. And all Windows Phone 7 devices had to have a capacitive touch screen, and that at the time meant no gloves. So Windows Phone 7 clearly was not the future for industrial handhelds, and though Microsoft eventually came out with Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Windows Embedded Handheld 8.1 it was too little too late.

What also complicated matters was that Microsoft moved the Windows Mobile group into the Windows Embedded business, and thus separated it from the Windows Phone group. So for a while, there was Windows Mobile 6.5 (also known as Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5) as well as Windows Embedded Compact 7. As a result, Windows Phone 8 was not only incompatible with the old Windows Mobile, but also with Microsoft's own Windows Phone 7.x. It was a bizarre situation.

Many then expected Windows Phone 8 to have an impact on the vertical mobile handheld market as it represented a clean break with anything that came before it, and also shared components with Windows 8. Unfortunately, the unethusiastic reception of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 meant that most verticals stayed with the increasingly obsolete WEH 6.5, or they tried Android.

All of this seemed to change with Windows 10. In 2017, the awkwardly named Windows 10 IoT Mobile Enterprise theoretically became the successor of the old Windows Mobile/Embedded Handheld. But once Microsoft's Nokia Lumina experiment failed and was abandoned, there was very little adoption of Windows 10 in any form on handhelds. Eventually, Microsoft ceased all efforts and exited the small devices OS market in late 2017, casually mentioning Windows 10 Mobile was now in "maintenance mode."

By early 2020, Android held over 80% of the smartphone market, with Google still concentrating almost exclusively on phones at the expense of tablets. Version fragmentation remained a big issue, as was a lack of upgradeability and Google's increasing heavy-handedness in tying more and more of Android to Google and Google services.

On the plus side, rugged Android devices are, for the most part, no longer treated as junior versions of Windows devices. Most new Android handhelds and tablets use near state-of-the-art technology, and the performance gap between consumer tech and rugged devices is no larger that large.

With Windows CE/Mobile/Embedded Handheld gone, Android is the clear (and pretty much only) migration path for older handheld deployments and applications. Increasingly, Android tablets are part of that migration.

As of late 2021, Android continues to make inroads. The migration from old legacy Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded Handheld to Android is big business. Companies like Ivanti and others offer tools like terminal emulation, voice picking and web apps that make migration easy. While Google keeps Android almost exclusively focused on phones and seems mired in an internal Android vs Chrome OS battle, third party hardware providers offer increasingly powerful Android tablets (an example is the Panasonic Toughbook A3).

By early 2023, Microsoft's legacy handheld OS platforms are mere memory; it's all Android on the majority of the world's smartphones and also on almost all vertical and industrial market handhelds. Google's endless version and user interface tinkering remains annoying, as does Google's increasing use of Android for advertising and locking Android users into its own services.

--Conrad H. Blickenstorfer, Ph.D. (updated January 2023)

Comparison Tools >>
Rugged handhelds
Rugged tablets
Rugged notebooks
Rugged Android devices
Rugged Android Handhelds
2T N4
Amrel APEX AH53
Amrel DF7A
ADLINK IMX-2000 Rugged Handheld
Arbor Gladius 5
Arbor Gladius GT-500
Arbor G60
Bluebird Pidion BM-170 smartphone
Bluebird Pidion BM-180 smartphone
Bluebird Pidion BIP-6000 handheld
Bluebird EF500/EF500R handheld
Cedar CT5
Cedar CP3
CipherLab RS30
CipherLab RS50
Conker SX80
Datalogic Joya Touch A6
Datalogic Memor 1
Datalogic Memor 10
Datalogic Memor 20
Datalogic Memor K
Datalogic Skorpio X5
Handheld Group Nautiz X2
Handheld Nautiz X41
Handheld Group Nautiz X6
Handheld Group Nautiz X8
Handheld Group Nautiz X9
Honeywell Dolphin 75e
Honeywell Dolphin 7800 for Android
Honeywell CN75
Honeywell CK75
Honeywell CN80
Janam XG4
Janam XG200
Janam XM75
Janam XT2
Janam XT3
Janam XT30
Janam XT200
Juniper Allegro 3
Juniper Archer 3
Juniper Cedar CP3
Juniper Mesa 3
Intermec CN51
Kyocera DuraForce PRO 2
Kyocera DuraXE Epic
MilDef DF8A
Opticon H27
Opticon H28
Opticon H29 Opticon 32/33
Panasonic Toughpad N1
Panasonic Toughpad T1 Panasonic Toughpad X1
Spectralink PIVOT 87

Trimble Juno T41 handheld Trimble Nomad 5 handheld
SDG Systems RAMPAGE 6
Unitech EA500
Unitech EA602
Unitech HT730
Unitech PA700
Unitech PA700V
Unitech PA692A

Winmate C350T Rugged Handheld
Winmate 3.7" Rugged Handheld
Winmate E430T Rugged Handheld
Winmate E430M2 Rugged Handheld
Winmate S430T Rugged Handheld Winmate M700DQ8 tablet Winmate M900Q8 tablet
Zebra MC9300
Zebra TC5 Series
Zebra TC20
Zebra TC25
Zebra TC21/TC26
Zebra TC55 touch computer
Zebra TC52/TC57 touch computer
Zebra TC70 touch computer
Zebra TC70x touch computer
Zebra TC75 touch computer
Zebra VC80x vehicle computer
Rugged Android Tablets
2T N4
ARBOR Gladius 8
ARBOR Gladius 0830
Cedar CT7G
DLI 9000 rugged tablet
Getac Z710 rugged tablet
Getac ZX70 rugged tablet
Handheld Algiz RT7
Handheld Algiz RT8
Harris RF-3590 rugged tablet
Janam XT1
Janam HT1
Juniper Cedar CT7G
Juniper Cedar CT8
Motorola ET1 Enterprise Tablet
Panasonic Toughpad A2
Panasonic Toughbook A3
Panasonic Toughpad B1
Panasonic Toughpad B2
Panasonic Toughbook L1
Panasonic Toughbook S1
RuggON PA-501
Samsung Galaxy Tab Active
Unitech TB100 Unitech TB120
Winmate M700DT4 Rugged Tablet
Winmate M700DQ8 Rugged Tablet
Winmate M101M4 Rugged Tablet
Winmate M900Q8 Rugged 8.0" Tablet
Xplore XSlate D10
Rugged Android Panels
JLT Mobile JLT6012A
RuggON MT7000
RuggON VIKING
Teguar TA-A920
Android Resources
Android Compatibility Program
Android Open Source Project