Have you seen the new Android Market? Thanks to a slick design, it's now simpler to buy books and rent movies … but only on your smartphone. Way to alienate your tablet users, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). This, Fool, is why Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad has 100 times more native apps than Android peers from Samsung and Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI).

No tip of the tab
I'm beginning to wonder whether Android boss Andy Rubin secretly hates the tablet format. Or maybe he's a spy for Apple. (OK, not really.) Whatever his problem is, Rubin's team is either unwilling or unable to create parity between smartphones and tablets.

Let's assume it’s the latter. Google already is split between growing the love for Chrome OS and the Chromebook at the same time as it shepherds Android and a new social-media service, Google+. It's likely that Rubin's team is stretched as thin as most third-party developers.

And when I say "stretched," I mean Stretch Armstrong-style stretched. Between Apple's iOS and the varying flavors of Android, there's way too much work for developers to do. Mix in Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Mango mobile OS, Palm's WebOS, and Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry, and I can understand why Hulu Plus and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) have yet to support Honeycomb. They're too busy writing code for smartphones.

But Rubin and his team also haven't given coders nearly enough incentive to develop apps for tablets. Remember three years ago when Google sponsored a developer contest? By fall 2009, they were writing more than 2,000 new Android apps a month, and today the Android Market hosts more than 200,000 apps. Why didn't anyone think to create a similar contest for tablet apps? Where's the love for Honeycomb?

3 things to do now, Google
The OS needs a shot in the arm -- quick -- before Google kills it, as it has so many other underperforming services. Here are three ideas to get the conversation started:

  1. Start a new developer contest. Yes, I'm saying it again. Nothing motivates developers like cash; that's why Apple likes to talk about the $2 billion paid out to coders who've written iOS apps. The numbers don't have to be obscenely large -- earlier contests paid out $250,000 as a top prize -- but there's something psychologically alluring about $1 million. A contest with a first prize that big would be small potatoes for Google yet still generate big headlines and a flood of Honeycomb development.
  2. Create the Nexus One tablet. I've said this before as well. Every great hardware platform has a reference design. Android smartphones had the Nexus One. Why shouldn't Android tablets get the same courtesy? At the very least, a reference design would give Google a chance to get creative and at the same time give developers a glimpse of what Rubin's team views as an ideal user experience.
  3. Commit to the features that matter. I'll understand if this sounds simplistic, but is it really so difficult to prioritize software development so that the basics are covered? There really isn't much point to building a tab with a high-powered NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) processor if there's no streaming video to render. Send a team to its Los Gatos headquarters if you have to, Google, but get Netflix working on Honeycomb. Now.

I hate to be so tough on Google so soon after the company reported great results. But business is business, and when it comes to its Android tab efforts, the Big G is acting small. Do you agree? Disagree? Share your opinions, analysis, and ideas using the comments box below.

And if you're in the hunt for more tech stock ideas, try this free special report. In it, you'll learn about a stock that my Foolish colleagues believe is poised to profit from expanding broadband access but which has yet to take off. Get immediate access -- it's 100% free.