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Google’s Upcoming $199 Nexus Tablet To Pressure Vendors to Slash Prices (Update)

By Wong Casandra - on 4 Apr 2012, 11:40am

Google’s Upcoming $199 Nexus Tablet To Pressure Vendors to Slash Prices (Update)

Source: PocketNow


Update: Photos (above) of the alleged Google Nexus tablet have been floating around in the realms of the Internet. However, as AndroidCommunity points out, there seem to be a lot of similarities to the 7.7-inch prototype tablet Toshiba was showing off at CES 2012. We're taking this with a pinch of salt - the image of the 'Google Nexus tablet' might after all be one of the 7.7-inch Toshiba tablet.

 

With the furor over the new iPad simmering down, attention has been once again diverted to the alleged upcoming Google Nexus tablet. Some details have already been leaked by Google chairman Eric Schmidt during an interview with SlashGear in December, namely their plans "to market a tablet of the highest quality" with voice recognition technology to rival Apple's Siri in the next six months.

More crucial information was revealed earlier this month - the tablet, expected to retail for US$199 is rumored to be manufactured by ASUS and will comprise of the following specs:

  • 7-inch
  • NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor (or dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor; according to Android Community, the former might be dropped in favor of the latter to keep price low)
  • Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

With Google entering a relatively new low-cost tablet segment, tech pundits are expecting it to apply significant pressure on other major Android vendors to cut prices on their own tablets. That plus the upcoming new 7-, 9-, 10-inch Amazon Fires and the alleged existence of a 7.1- or 7.85-inch iPad Mini, a price war is inevitable: "prices [might] continue to drop and internal component costs increase, gross margins are expected to drop rapidly, forcing vendors and component makers to fight over narrowing profits".

The Google Nexus tablet is reportedly a “done deal” and is said to enter production in April and ship around June. Judging by the estimated timeline, the gadget might be just in time to be unveiled at Google’s annual I/O conference on June 27th. How will Google's own tablet fare in a segment saturated by other Android tablets? Like the Kindle Fire, its affordable price and cloud services will be features of consideration. For now, you can check out our tablet guide for tips if you are currently on the lookout for one.

Sources: Digitimes via BGR, Android Community, PocketNow via BGR

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