Why Ubuntu For Tablets Will Not Allow Android Apps

Canonical is looking forward to come up with its touch optimised Ubuntu operating system for tablets and smartphones very soon and many users are expecting to install Ubuntu on their Android based tablet or smartphone and at the same time enjoy Android applications. But Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth has categorically said NO to emulation. So, Ubuntu will not run Android applications on laptops, tablet PCs or smartphones.

In a Slashdot interview, a reader asked Shuttleworth why doesn\’t Ubuntu include Android emulation so people can run their vast catalog of Android apps on their laptop, tablet or the like? In reply Shuttleworth said, “Because no OS ever succeeded by emulating another OS. Android is great, but if we want to succeed we need to bring something new and better to market.”

“If we said we aimed to run Android apps, then two things would happen. Every developer that potentially cared about Ubuntu would feel it was OK to just write an app for Android. And every bug that would be specific to our implementation of Android\’s APIs would of course be a bug for us to fix, not a bug for the app developer,” added Shuttleworth.

In a recent development, Canonical launched a timer on its official Ubuntu website hinting the launch of a touch optimised Ubuntu OS on 2 January 2013. “So close, you can almost touch it.”