Google Nexus Tablet on the horizon?

And so the rumor mills churn! The rumors all started when Google Chairman Eric Schmidt alluded to “a tablet of highest quality” some time in 2012. Google is said to be working on a “Kindle-Fire killer” in the 7-inch form for around $200, and a 10-inch tablet for around $250 arriving some time in May or June. With Google IO around the corner this seems even more likely

News came on Friday that Google headed to Taiwan at the end of 2011 to seek out co-brand partners for its new tablet. HTC has always been a partner of Google, but they did not want to -and these are their words- “impair” the HTC image with a low-price tablet. They wanted to control the direction of the tablet and Google wanted nothing to do with that. They then went to Acer, who couldn’t meet the needs of Google as well.

So who did they choose? One would think Motorola, whom Google purchased, with all of its R&D capabilities, not to mention the factories they own, but there was no mention of Motorola in any reports. Asus is said to be working on the tablet with Google, and to be honest we are glad!!!

                Asus  took the tablet world and showed them some true quality with its Transformer line of tablets. During conferences in the past, Asus leaked information that it was working on a $250 dollar tablet.  Asus then revealed the MeMo 370T  at CES 2012 which sported a Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC. Google’s offering is said to feature Nvidia’s quad-core SoC, a 1280 x 800 resolution, 1 GB of internal storage and Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich.”

                There are reports that this will ship with a new version of Android 5.0 but this would be a mistake. Currently there are only 2 devices with Ice Cream Sandwich, .The Google Nexus, and the Asus Transformer Prime.  New devices that will ship with ICS will arrive in 3 to 4 months, but this would be way too quick. The gap between device versions would only cause more  fragmentation, not to mention anger.

Google has branded most of their mobile world with the word “play” now, and this could point to more things coming in the future. The rumored Entertainment center, improvement to Google TV, the new Google music/book/movie sections of the market, all point to Google improving the Android experience. We really hope Google gets their act together and balances the ecosystem.

The acquisition of Motorola can show a new fantastic Nexus phone from Goggle, and they need it now. Apple is regaining the lure that Android had somewhat taken; and if Google wants to remain atop the mobile market, they need to fix the current problems with its ecosystem. When we use our phones, they should just work.  I shouldn’t need XDA to make my phone enjoyable.

The impact a good tablet at the $200-$250 price point would be tremendous. Asus is a fantastic company and given the track record of Asus and its popular Transformer tablets, Google seems to be in a good position to enter the tablet market using its Nexus name, as long as Verizon doesn’t attempt to kill this Nexus device. Asus recently reported February revenues of $931 million, up 26.49-percent from January and up 94.03-percent from February 2011. January-February revenues of NT $49.417 billion hiked 45-percent on year, Asus said.
–Mario Vasquez, ABT Contributing Editor

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