It seems that the previous rumors about a flagship Google Android tablet are true. Faced with the ongoing success of Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire, Google is teaming up with Asustek to debut a new 7-inch tablet that should bloom with Android-based software in late spring.
Industry sources are stating that the co-branded tablet is being jointly developed by Google and Asustek.
This Google ushered introduction to the market could not only hope to dethrone the Kindle Fire from the top of the seven inch tablet kingdom, but also take on Apple’s iPad.
It has long been rumored that Apple will introduce its own seven-inch tablet – a nano-like iPad – but the third generation iPad has just been released and there has been no officially announced plans for an iPad mini. Barnes and Noble recently released a slimmed down Nook tablet for $199 to compete with the Kindle Fire’s price tag, and it is believed that Google and Asustek will keep their own tablet in the $199-250 range.
The Kindle Fire has a 7 inch, 16 million color display with a resolution of 169 pixels per inch, which was exceeding the iPad 2, though the newest iPad has leapfrogged the Kindle's display capabilities.
Any Google/Asustek tablet would be expected to at the very least match the Kindle Fire’s specs, because Google hopes to really outshine the Amazon machine. As consumers, we still do not know what to expect from a Google-branded tablet, but we do know that other Android-based products and apps have thrived in a market that once only favored Apple.
People like having a choice and this new device could offer consumers another tablet with adept, innovative, and intuitive software with droves of apps and tight Google service integration.
Google and the Taiwan-based PC maker Asustek are planning to release the 7-inch co-branded tablet as soon as May 2012, reports DigiTimes. We will look on with our curiosity perked.
