War Maneuvers: Android Event Will Battle iPad Event For Press Love On February 2

I love asking companies if the timing of events is on purpose or purely coincidental. Not only do they almost always say that it’s purely coincidental, but they often try to claim that didn’t even realize a rival was also doing something when they made their plans. Sure.

Next week will feature another such situation. Earlier this week, News Corp. and Apple sent out press invites for an event to unveil the new iPad-only app, The Daily. And then this evening, we’ve just received an invite to a Google event to show off the latest version of Android, Honeycomb. The one meant for tablets. And guess what? They’re on the same day.

Sure, the events are on different sides of the country (though word is that News Corp./Apple had originally wanted to host their’s in the Bay Area too). And as such, the iPad event will be slightly earlier than the Android event (8 AM PT versus 10 AM PT). That doesn’t matter. The key is that controlling the news that day will be paramount for both sides. And Android just press-blocked the iPad.

The events are timed and situated in such a way that it would be absolutely impossible for a journalist with invites to each event to go to both. And while Google is being nice enough to host a live stream on YouTube (something which News Corp./Apple will almost for sure not do), it will still be a pain to extensively cover both. You’ll basically have to choose.

Normally, it would be all iPad next Wednesday. Now it’s likely to be more Android-controlled. And don’t think there’s nothing to the fact that Google is showing off a “taste” of Android shortly before the iPad 2 is expected to be unveiled.

War.