• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 3, 2011

Google has created a workshop to help developers optimize apps running on the Android operating system for tablet devices. Beginning in India, the series of sessions set up by Google's Android Developer Relations will highlight optimization skills during the second half of 2011.

The idea takes application developers who are familiar with writing client apps on mobile devices and teaches how to create them for tablets, which more closely resembles a PC or laptop. It shows them the differences between phone and tablet app development. Tablets running the Android operating system, Honeycomb, offer developers more design options because of the multitasking abilities and larger screen that allows users to open and run multiple items of content side-by-side.

It's too early to tell whether consumers will become as attached to tablets -- which marketers consider an interesting hybrid between laptops and mobile phones -- as they have with smartphones.

Parker Whittle, chief technology officer at Tagga Media, a mobile marketing platform provider, points to location, identity and communication base as the three attributes that make mobile marketing attractive. Several factors make mobile interesting, he said. "Mobile ties to a person's identity," he said. "People rarely share phones, and they take them wherever they go."

Whittle points to a free Android application that provides consumers with a map of retail stores in shopping centers that can offer promotions from retailers in the mall.

While marketers prefer free applications to market products and services, there is big money in mobile applications. AndroLib estimates 39,025 new applications were uploaded to Android Market in July, up from 38,404 from the prior month.

Out of 267,974 apps from the Android Market about 63.5% are free, compared with 36.5% paid. The top five viewed paid applications in Android Market include Akinator, Root Explorer, BitTorrent Client, Beatiful Widget, and IP Cam Viewer. Better Keyboard Unlock Key made it into the No. 6 slot.

Earlier this year, Electricpig reviewed eight groups that have been successful with apps. Better Android Apps, for example, launched two successful apps in the market: Open Home for $3.99 and Better Keyboard for $2.99. Combined the two apps have sold 553,329. Electricpig estimates a potential $1.34 million in profit after Google takes its share.