Google's Nexus tablet could be the company's next hardware device. Jon Snyder/Wired.com
The long-awaited Android-running, Google-branded tablet reportedly arrives in April.
The device is aimed squarely at the dominant, and cheap, Amazon Kindle Fire, which is the world’s leading 7-inch Android device. The tablet, which former CEO Eric Schmidt first mentioned in December, also would advance Google’s plan to create a unified software and hardware ecosystem — just like that company in Cupertino.
Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch, told CNET the Google tablet is on track for production in April and is expected to cost $199. It will sport a 7-inch, 1280×800 display and run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Those specs, if they pan out, one-up the Kindle Fire, which also costs $199 but has a 1024×600 display and runs on a modified version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3).
Should the tablet actually materialize, it would be yet another entry in Google’s sweeping hardware initiative. Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility will give the search company a ready-to-go hardware division. The tablet also would follow the rumored music-streaming entertainment device that would take advantage of the proposed Android@Home initiative announced at Google I/O.
This week The New York Times reported that Google is working on HUD glasses that could be formally announced by the end of the year.
Beyond its internal hardware initiatives, Google has partnered with HTC and Samsung for its Nexus-branded smartphones. The current crop of Nexus flagship phones were the first Android phones powered by Ice Cream Sandwich.
Indeed, all the rumored hardware and the Motorola Mobility acquisition suggest Google is positioning itself as a company that owns the entire “product stack,” from operating system to app ecosystem to hardware. This, of course, is the strategy employed by Google’s main rival in the mobile market, Apple.
Should Google continue down this path, it may be the next company, to “own the whole widget,” as Steve Jobs would say.
