This won't be a me-too Android tablet, but something very different. So what can we expect?
Google Nexus tablet release date
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt reckons the Google tablet will land this summer, as he was quoted as saying: "Noi nei prossimi sei mesi contiamo di mettere sul mercato un tablet di altissima qualità ," he said, because he was in Italy. In English, that's "we'll bring a tablet of the highest quality to market in the next six months", or perhaps "I'll have the pasta, but hold the parmesan".On 24 February 2012, analyst Richard Shim said that Google will launch its 7-inch (1280x800) Google tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich with production starting in April. Shim added that initial production would be between 1.5 million and 2 million units.
On 6 April 2012, we reported on rumours that the Google Nexus tablet release date may now have been pushed to July and that the tablet will not be running Android Jelly Bean. This is apparently because Google is trying to lower the price of the Nexus tablet to compete more aggressively with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Update: The Google Nexus tablet (or Asus Nexus 7 as it's also being called) is now expected to appear at the Google I/O event on June 27.
Update: According to Digitimes, Google will look to shift 3 million Nexus tablets by the end of 2012, which means it will probably need to get it on shelves sharpish.
Google tablet specs
Everybody assumed that Google's tablet would be an iPad rival. The fools! There are already stacks of iPad rivals running Android and costing roughly the same amount of cash, and it's hard to imagine what Google can bring to that party beyond heavy subsidy.It makes much more sense to believe DigiTimes - yes, that DigiTimes, the one with the rather patchy track record when it comes to predictions - and its claims that Google is going after the Kindle Fire.
That means the Google tablet specifications will include a seven-inch screen rather than a ten-incher. OLED-display says the panel is coming from Samsung, and will run a resolution of 1024 x 600.
It's a much bigger potential market, and one that Apple isn't in at all. Unless it drops the iPad 2 price out of sheer badness when the iPad HD comes out.
Update: Fudzilla reported on 6 March 2011 that the Nexus tablet will carry Nvidia's Tegra 3 chipset, which has led to speculation that Asus will be creating the tablet.
Update: On 9 March, we reported on fresh rumours that Asus would be building the Google Nexus tablet, this time from Digitimes. The site says Google has been seeking a Taiwanese partner and having ruled out both HTC and Acer, it has opted to work with Asus.
Update: During April and May a rumour surfaced saying that Samsung was producing the Google tablet, as specs relating to an Exynos 5250 dual-core Cortex-A15 processor, Super AMOLED display (1280 x 800 resolution) and 5MP camera appeared online.
Update: However the Samsung rumours look to have been quashed after an Asus rep said the Google tablet would arrive in June - confirming a quad-core processor, 7-inch display and Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
Update: We've also seen some leaked press images of the Asus Nexus 7 tablet appear via Phone Arena, showing off a tablet looking like a super-sized Samsung Galaxy Note - with a front facing camera and mobile-phone style ear piece featuring on the device.
Credit: PhoneArena
There's
also a camera round the back and the picture was accompanied by details
listing a 7-inch display, Tegra 3 processor and 1GB of RAM.Update: A new image of the Nexus 7 tablet has been leaked, which arrived with the following specs; -inch 1200 x 800 IPS display, 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, Android Jelly Bean, NFC and 1.2MP front-facing camera.
Credit:Gizmodo
Google tablet name
That's what most people think, anyway: Google already uses Nexus for its reference smartphones, although we suppose it's always possible that they might call the Google tablet something else, such as the Google Boogle.Update: Apparenty the Google Nexus name is dead, long live Asus Nexus 7 - according to file format data on some leaked images of not the tablet - but some ceiling tiles - apparently taken with the camera on the tablet.
Update:According to a leaked training document picked up by Gizmodo, the Google tablet will indeed be called the Nexus 7, and will be built by Asus.
Google tablet operating system
This one's a no-brainer: Google's Nexus tablet will come with the most up-to-date version of Android, and if it's going to ship by the summer that means the Google tablet OS will be Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0.Update: However, there are a couple of rumours flying around that the Nexus tablet will feature Android Jelly Bean, which has been hinted at getting an outing Google I/O.
Update: A leaked training document suggests the Nexus 7 tablet will run Android Jelly Bean, which is expected to be version 4.1 in the Android lifecycle.
Google Nexus tablet user interface
Google's laid down the law on this one: All future Android 4.0 devices must feature its default theme, Holo. It's hardly going to dig out MS Paint and ruin the UI for its own super-tablet.Google tablet price
There's no point competing with the Kindle Fire if your product is more expensive. That means a heavily subsidised US price of no more than $199, which works out as a UK price of £150 to £199.Like Amazon, Google's going to lose money on each one it sells - and like Amazon, it hopes to make the money back from other sources of income. For Amazon that's media sales; for Google it's media sales and advertising.