Google tablet pushed to July, design changes will focus on lowering price
By Vlad Bobleanta on 06 Apr 12This year’s most famous piece of vaporware so far has been delayed. Yes, a product that isn’t even official, and is nothing more than speculation based on a bunch of rumors at this point has already been delayed.
We’re talking about the Google ‘Nexus’ tablet, which may or may not get that exact name if it ever manages to launch. Last we heard, Google was targeting $149-$199 pricing for the device, yet it seems like the ‘current’ design is stuck at $249.
So that’s why the release is now being pushed to July. So Google and Asus can have time to go back to the drawing board and… well, basically make the thing cheaper. If there’s even a shred of truth to all this, it’s pretty clear that Google views Amazon’s Kindle Fire as the main competitor to its Android tablet, and not Apple’s iPad. Otherwise it wouldn’t try so hard to match (or beat) the former’s $199 price.
Oh, and guess what? The current design was ready to go for May, sources familiar with the matter uttered. But now you’ll have some more waiting to do before you can get your mitts on the pure Google tablet.
The Nexus tablet’s current design has a 7-inch screen, an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, and it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Some sources have had the decency to say that Android 4.0 is in fact the version that the Nexus tablet will run when sales start, and not Android 5.0 Jelly Bean as many rumors have claimed. Decency, because with so few devices running ICS right now, launching an even newer version of Android wouldn’t be the smartest thing for Google to do so soon. So expect that to arrive in the fall with the next Nexus smartphone.
And just in case you feel like questioning the above, remember that Google promised (what was it, back in 2010?) to slow down new Android releases to one major iteration per year. That however doesn’t mean that you should expect one in December of one year, and the next one in January of the next year. At least my common sense says so.
Via The Verge
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- 8 million new Google Nexus 7 tablets could be shipped this year
- Rumor: the next Google Nexus smartphone will be launched this month
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