Android tablet market needs help

In the last three months the table market has seen a lot of headlines from the Adnroid tablets will take over iPad sales to "Is the Adroid tablet dead".  Both of those were from Forbes in nearly a two month period.  I own and Acer tablet and we have an iPad in the house as well.  My Acer tablet is my Android product but otherwise I'm Apple owner in general and I'm a Linux user at heart.  I think Google releasing so many products has apparently not understood the Tablet market very well, or just not made it a priority.  That is also seen by their latest OS release which hardly does anything good for the tablet, and focuses their efforts on winning the phone war with Apple and now Microsoft.  But there are things Google can do to really attack the tablet market and not just hand it over to Amazon and Apple.

Amazon has nearly 50% (depends on time you count the numbers) of the Android tablet market.  The strategy could be a great one if you make money selling content, which Amazon does, but they sell these tablets at a loss.  So if you are an OEM tablet manufacture this approach isn't going to work for you.  It makes hard to enter the sub $200 market.  And Amazon has heavily discounted content to get people using the content service.  Google's answer is the Nexus 7 built by Asus.  The good news is that Google is vested in getting this right and Asus is a good partner.  Google also has beefed up their media & content.  The bad is that this could easily develop into a price war on hardware and content with Amazon leaving no margin for either player and killing all other entrants.  Its also does nothing to attack Apple's position as the superior experience in the market.  The Nexus is small and doesn't have many of the open features that other Android tablets have, like HDMI out and a superior display.  So the bottom end of the market is now taken by Google and Amazon (maybe some Nook) serving people who want to surf, read and watch show on something bigger than their phone.  At this price point consumers could easily own a laptop, a gaming console as well as a smart phone.

The iPad is competing not only for the media market but its taking laptop sales.  For people who don't want the extra laptop and are not hard core PC gamers, the iPad fits the bill.  The competitor in terms of sales volume in this space is only Samsung.  I like my Acer, but it just doesn't have the sales the Samsung Galaxy Tab has.  Here is what I think Google, Android, and the OEM's need to do to make a dent in this space.

1. The OS just needs to stop crashing.  Stability is an issue.  Its all over the web, so the denials just aren't worth listening too.  Make it work.
2. A great feature of tablets are their larger size, but at this time, most apps are still scaled phone apps.  I know iPad had this too and Apps aren't made by Google, but.. and oh wait Apps are made by Google, so at least make those Tablet size with improved features.  Because the Apple apps are improved.  Demonstrate to the market what can be done.
3. Store apps on the SDCard.  I have 12Gig of memory and I'm out of space.  My son has the acer too, and he is out space.  It doesn't take long.  Even if the Data for the apps could be on the SD Card it would make a big difference.  The SDCard is nice, but not really worth having with out this, and so there is no advantage over iPad.  With this working, its a selling point to compete head to head.
4. Keep the open hardware features.  The Nexus 7 has a mini usb and no HDMI.  But that was a great selling point over iPad.  I plug my Acer into an HDMI video source add a keyboard and its like desktop on the go.  No more full laptop when flying, no hassle at the airport and the full keyboard and normal screen is great.  With a VNC or variant, I'm connect to my computer and work on that.  Its a great mobile option.
5. Smart Multitasking - If I'm playing a game, don't start auto updates and certainly don't stop my game to tell me.  Yes, I can turn off auto updates, and stop the messages.  I want smart updates, if I'm doing something, its not the right time.  But there is plenty of time my Tablet is doing anything, or I'm just surfing.  Update then.  But don't interrupt my Netflix or Hulu with that stuff.    
6. Mobile Gaming.  Acer supports some real gaming options.  These are FPS shooters with great graphics and game play.  One reason the space is an issue, they have a lot of data.  This a great segment for Acer.  My teen son loves it.  Its a mobile game platform, when it works.  Plug hdmi into the TV, add a PS3 controller and its great affordable and portable game play.  The problem is limited game controller support.  I understand that part of this is the game maker, but Android could make controllers easier to support by building that into Android.  The problem is stability again.  Who wants to start the game over after the crash?  The multitasking updates take away from the experience as well.  In this area, the Acer kills the iPad.
7. Content - Apple has more and Amazon has more - at least according to their users.  I know Google recently reported having more content, but it needs to be a market reality to mean something.
8. DLNA - Support of this open standard in an ongoing way makes the device attractive.  At the time, I can really only send my music to my PS3.  Could be because I don't know better, but helping wireless connect to devices in the house and compete in an Open way against Apple is a winning strategy.  AppleTv doesn't have the market penetration of XBox and PS3 as the Tv connector of the future.  My Xbox is even a Cable box with AT&T, so why not stream my music too it, connected to my stereo.  I don't have to buy yet another product.
9. Price - The Android has to be cheaper and better.  Trying to cost the same as the iPad, and I just buy an iPad.  For a while, Android is going to need to win on price.  There needs to be a reason to risk using it.  OEM relationships work when a higher quality product can be delivered at a cheaper price because each partner can specialize in what it does.  Single source engineering works when the over quality and experience needs to be controlled by single source to ensure a superior product.  What wins changes over time.  For the last few years this has favored Apple and not Microsoft and Google.  Google needs to make this work if Android is going to work.
10. Third party hardware support - DLNA and open hardware connectors sort of get you there, but there are just more third party add on products that make it easier to do stuff with the iPad.  Of course the OEM strategy makes it difficult to make this happen on a mass scale.  Apple would win this one for a while, but now they are reportedly changing their standard connector which could cause the market a lot of pain and be a positive selling point for the standard approach of Android talbets.
11. Jelly Bean doesn't get you there on the tablet.  I don't care about the better camera on my tablet.  Most of the features in this minor release have no benefits to tablets.  Changing the user interface again is not the problem.  Crashing is, multitasking that brings the system to a halt is a problem.  So while new features are exciting for a minor release, lets get things working smooth.  This release doesn't really address anything I talked about here.  There needs to be a release that is stable and has features people with Tablets want, not just phone improvements.

See something you think would help Android in the tablet market, let me know.