NEW YORK — Yandex's mobile software developer SPB Software is introducing a "three-dimensional" user interface for tablets running Google's Android operating system as it seeks to broaden its reach in the mobile market.
The Shell 3D Tablet Edition offers a carousel design that allows users to see panels of all their applications and widgets in three dimensions, according to a statement released Tuesday by Yandex, Russia's most popular Internet search engine and owner of SPB Software.
With mobile operators now offering tablets with broadband access as well as mobile phones and smartphones, the market for specialized tablet-tailored software is growing, Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, general manager of Yandex Mobile said, according to the statement.
Global sales of tablets are expected to reach 326 million a year by 2015, according to Gartner, a Stamford, Connecticut-based research company. Sales of tablets probably increased to 63.6 million units in 2011, compared with 17.6 million in 2010, according to Gartner.
Yandex — which saw its share of the Russian search market drop to 59.3 percent this calendar month to Feb. 27, from 59.6 percent in January, according to Liveintenet.ru — is making mobile development one of its priorities, spokesman Ochir Mandzhikov said by e-mail.
