It’s the first day of fall in the U.S. and already the forecast is turning gloomy on whether the current batch of Android tablets can overcome Apple’s lead. Amazon, perhaps with the best chance to rival the iPad, may have already stumbled by putting up a 7-inch device against Apple’s larger alternative, industry experts warned Friday.

Google has issued an update to its Android Market application that makes a whole host of improvements to the speed and stability of the service. While it doesn’t pack any new features like the recent 3.1.3 release, it does make using the Android Market a much nicer experience.

Android smartphones will quickly dominate as home media hubs, beating out Apple’s AirPlay, one market research firm predicts.

In a bid to keep up with its competitors, such as the iCloud service coming from Apple in the fall, and the Skydrive service available to Windows Phone 7 users, HTC is offering a cloud-based storage service package of its own — with the help of Dropbox.

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The main problem with Android tablets taking on Apple is the software, research giant Gartner announced Thursday. Android tablet sales were cut by 28 percent over the previous quarter to 17.3 percent of the market versus 73.4 percent for the iPad.