At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the charge in the operating systems (OS) arena was led predominantly by the increasingly popular Google Android OS, which powered a horde of smartphones and tablets displayed at the show.

What was even more impressive on the Android front was the fact that a number of devices featured the latest Android iteration – the Android version 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ – which showed notable enhancements for the platform.

Among the noteworthy Android-based devices showcased at the 2012 CES was Huawei’s Ascend P1 S smartphone, equipped with the Android 4.0 version as well as huge inbuilt storage capacity; as well as the same company’s 7-inch Android 4.0 tablet, MediaPad.

However, it was the Asus Transformer Prime tablet device which was apparently the Android star of the 2012 CES. Featuring an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and boasting exceptional graphics capabilities, the large Transformer Prime tablet had the ability of driving an 8-person multiplayer version of the demoed Shadowrun game, with the additional attraction of reflecting the display on a big screen HDTV in 720p format.

While the products displayed at the CES were a clear indication of the impressive hardware which will run Android, Google has also given due attention to good software as well as an effective mobile user interface
--- though the company has already gained an edge with the Android 4.0 interface, it has also recently reiterated the need for developers to follow specific design guidelines for third-party Android apps.