Google to launch a 7-inch Nexus tablet: Report

Reportedly, Amazon’s Kindle Fire will soon have its competitor. If reports are to be believed, Google is planning to hit the market with a 7-inch Nexus tablet in the coming months for $199.

A new report from Android and Me said, “The Asus MeMo 370T that was revealed at CES has been scrapped after Google contracted with Asus to produce their ‘Nexus tablet’.” It further reported that the device will come at a target price of $149-$199.

This comes as a follow-up to the recent report from DigiTimes which said that Google and Asustek are working together to doff the silk off their 7-inch co-branded tablet PC as early as May, which will target Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The new device is reported to be priced at $199-249. Asus displayed its MeMO ME370T tablet at CES this year – a 7-inch tablet engineered with a Tegra 3 SoC, 1280 x 800 resolution display.

Though we have not heard much about it since then. And now it is reported that it has been scrapped and a Google Nexus tablet is all set go, which will be cheaper than the Kindle Fire.

Though rumours are doing the rounds for quite sometime, but Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, is the one who actually started the firestorm when he was reported telling an Italian publication Corriere Della Sera in December 2011 that his company will market a competitive tablet within the next six months. And since then, speculations surrounding a Google-branded tablet are rife.

Of late, Android chief Andy Rubin added fuel to the fire when he said during Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, that the company intends to come up with the consumer tablet this year. “Google wants consumers to see its tablets as part of the broader Android ecosystem. The educated consumer realises it now that they’re either picking the Apple ecosystem or the Microsoft ecosystem or the Google ecosystem… we’re going to do a better job at making people understand what ecosystem they’re buying into,” The Verge quoted Rubis as saying during MWC 2012.

Now, all the eyes are on Google. These rumours will only come to an end with Google’s formal announcement.