First of all, until recently wasn't so easy to install a Linux Distro on unrooted Android tablets, since any viable solution requires root privileges to run some libraries.
After several working of some hackers, now is possible to try Debian or Fedora on Android tablets without rooting (and avoiding a headache is something bricks the tablet).
The most complete one is GnuRoot, which enables to install Debian Wheezy, Fedora Remix or Gentoo, but requires a second application for X11 Window Server and some elementary hacking.
(like this: start XSDL app, and on GNuRoot's Terminal app just type:
$ DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0 startxfce4
To start the XFCE 4 Desktop Environment, if you install it first
)
Later, a app to install Wheezy with XFCE4 was launched as Debian noroot on Google Play, but you can install the apk package from SourceFourge project page. The app install's automagically th base system and starts directly to Desktop mode. Other advange of this project is the fact the Debian's version are based on the armhf version, instend the armel version on GnuRoot side.
Now, since Mathematica was ported to Linux ARM, and launched on Raspbian Distro (based on armhf Debian Wheezy), I tried the installation of Mathematica 10 on a Tegra 3 Android tablet running the Debian noroot virtual machine application. After a little care of installing Java and some Fortran libraries from Wheezy Backports repo, the Mathematica starts, but hangs when the Wolfram logo pop up on screen, and display "initializing Kernel", or something else.
Running Mathematica from Terminal don't show any errors. The wolfram utility runs on Terminal and asks a license key
.
Also, trying to run the Console version of Mathematica (mathkernel) means nothing, since it's absent.
No matter I try, I need to kill Mathematica to resume normal working.
Other software like JDownloader, LibreOffice, PeaZip, Qemu User i386 emulator to run some x86 software, LibreCad, Qt Creator installs and runs nicelly, turning an Android tablet on a full blown Linux laptop computer (except kernel modules, low level hardware acess since it is not acessible form a chrooted environment).
So, it is a bug of software or a hack is needed to run Mathematica on a generic ARM computer ? I don't think Wolfram was put a hardcoded routine check to verity the ARM features to verify if someone try to run Mathematica on other ARM computer than a Raspberry Pi. Even this error are easilly documented on x86 computers as well.