Google: We’re Planning Tablet ‘Of Highest Quality’ to Rival iPad

(11:10 am PDT, Dec 19th 2011)

Google: We’re Planning Tablet ‘Of Highest Quality’ to Rival iPad

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Remember the Motorola Xoom tablet, Google’s first attempt to compete against Apple’s iPad? It was only a bad dream. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is now promising a purely Android tablet “of the highest quality” in six months.

Schmidt’s comments to the Italian newspaper Corrier della Sea (Slash Gear has a report in English) follows the 2010 release of Motorola’s Xoom tablet.

What’s different this time? The new tablet is in the “Nexus” category of devices using pure Android. The Motorola Xoom used Honeycomb, a tablet-centric version of Android. The Nexus tablet Google is forecasting will use “Ice Cream Sandwich,” a version of the mobile software combining both Honeycomb and Gingerbread. The Gingerbread variant of Android is aimed at smartphones. Last month, the Galaxy Nexus smartphone was unveiled using Android “Ice Cream Sandwich.”

What’s behind the push for a Nexus tablet? Perhaps it is the success Amazon is experiencing with the Kindle Fire. The Amazon tablet is powered by a heavily modified version of Android which links to a number of services offered by the online retail giant. Google would likely prefer the first successful Android-based tablet be one that includes features tightly woven into the Mountain View, Calif. company’s family of products, such as Gmail and others.

The Nexus tablet will become a litmus test for how well Android can transfer from smartphones to tablets. There have been numerous flame-outs by Android tablets with HP’s defunct TouchPad likely the most spectacular. A key problem for iPad alternatives is that all tablets are measured against the Apple device. I’ll buy anything, as long as it operates and looks just like an iPad, is an often-heard response from consumers.

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Comment »

  • Anonymous

    Unless they give it away for free they won’t.

  • Anonymous

    Good luck with that.

  • Anonymous

    yeah google will always be, “in the six months behind”

  • Aristomenis Tsirbas

    Google will first need to wait for Apple to release the iPad 3 so they can scramble to copy it.

  • http://www.mike-pulsifer.org/ WVMikeP

    Google’s UI is part of the problem.  It’s not a purely hardware issue.

    Damned engineers can’t see the forest.

  • Anonymous

    So, being from Google, it will most likely be in beta for a year or two…

    • Anonymous

      It’s good news for Apple. Now, who would buy an Android device until the new one arrives?  And in six months, Apple will further cement the ipad 2, and ipad3, as the standard of tablet computing.

  • http://twitter.com/taylerz Tayler

    “What’s behind the push for a Nexus tablet? Perhaps it is the success Amazon is experiencing with the Kindle Fire.”

    Not because of the iPad? You’re being modest. :)

    Google: “No one seems to be able to do it, so we gotta do it ourselves, eh?”

    I say to all tablet competitors: Bring it on! Competition is good. Keeps Apple on their toes, and we’ll benefit (when we buy the iPad, naturally)

  • MacGoo

    Apple must be shaking in their boots. Again, where is the internet sarc mark when we need it?

  • Nick Moore

    Sooooo Google are saying Android tablets have been crap until now, sorry Sammy and Co, and will see what comes up with iPad 3 to copy (cough) inspire them : )

  • Ken Fager

    Why is the next great Android device designed to dethrone the current iOS device always in the future?

  • http://www.mike-pulsifer.org/ WVMikeP

    The UI still isn’t “of the highest quality.”  It’s not a purely hardware problem.

    Damned engineers refuse to see the forest.

  • George Wedding

    So, Schmidt now is saying “you couldn’t really trust the quality of our product offerings before, but now you can trust us?” This is why I detest all these rushed-to-market Android devices. These Google partners aren’t re-inventing the world like Apple. They’re all just trying to cash in. You cannot trust a platform based on advertising.

  • http://twitter.com/infin1023 infin1023

    I think what he means was Nexus tablet will have the highest spec when they release it. In six months, ICS will be outdated, that’s mean it should come with half baked Jellybean?

    • Bby Twitty

      Maybe 1/4 cooked turkey steak.

  • Anonymous

    Yawn! Who cares ?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Boyd/502807631 Daniel Boyd

    um… the TouchPad was a WebOS tablet

  • Anonymous

    Not worth a comment…….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UFOA7SZT7AF7MYZMUFOEUKSJEE Gareth

    HP Touchpad wasn’t a spectacular Android failure – it was WebOS!

  • http://www.facebook.com/howie.isaacks Howie Isaacks

    We’ll see.  I doubt that it will be any better than the iPad.  By the time they get it released, iPad 3 will be out.

  • http://www.vgartdesign.com Vlad

    Google is gonna sell iPad?

  • Anonymous

    Price and performance and then a Kevlar vest for those it’s not an Apple club.

  • Anonymous

    Awesome the better the competition the better and cheaper I can get my iPad 

  • Anonymous

    Ed, fix your article:

    “The Nexus tablet will become a litmus test for how well Android can transfer from smartphones to tablets. There have been numerous flame-outs by Android tablets with HP’s defunct TouchPad likely the most spectacular.”

    The TouchPad runs WebOS not Android. wow.

    • David Wallner

      Actually Android has been running on the Touchpad since October… Fix your comment.

      • Anonymous

        Thank you Captain O.  I was referring to the context. 

  • AaronD12

    So, Eric, what you’re saying is that every Android tablet to this point has been a joke? I’m sure the manufacturers that use your operating system in their tablets would love to hear that.

  • Anonymous

    Remember the HTC Dream/G1, Google’s first attempt to compete against the iPhone? And see where it is now. Controlling the majority of the smartphone market.

    Also, fact failure. The HP Touchpad isn’t (by default) an Android tablet. Do a bit of basic research before you post these things.

About the author

Ed SutherlandEd Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who covers the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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