Google tablet to tackle Kindle Fire not iPad
Ad giant's seven-incher to cost $199?
The latest scuttlebutt from Taiwan: Google's rumoured tablet will now take on Amazon's 7in Kindle Fire rather than attempt to loosen Apple's tight hold on the market.
Google is shaking its head, of course, but rumours have long persisted that it's working on an own-brand tablet.
Since the advertising giant is on its way to owning Motorola, which sells tablets, you might think it has less need to do so than it did before the purchase.
But, no, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told an Italian newspaper last month that the company will have a tablet out within six month.
Lending credence to that: there has been a rush on 7in LCDs of late.
The latest rumour has it that the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based Google tablet - branded Nexus, presumably - will sell for $199, what Amazon is asking for the Fire. That may be Google's new target but it will still strike at the iPad's dominance given the price differential between that and the $499 Apple wants for an entry level iPad 2.
Of course, if Apple does indeed release a 'retina display' iPad 3 in February/March, that will put some clear blue water between its offering and Google's, leaving the search engine firm to battle it out for the low end with Amazon. ®
COMMENTS
I got one for my mum.
She loves it. A tablet at this end (and without the Transformer specialness) is really just a content consumption device. Amazon have a shitload of content. Google have... YouTube and er, that's it.
My mum gets her books, films and magazines on the Fire quite happily and never has to dredge through the fart-app and shitware infested Android market for anything.
It's the difference between turning on a tap and sucking your water supply from an open sewer.
They sell on specs...
...where others sell on awesomeness.
Also, what's this "non-retina display" stuff? Retina is a marketing term, not a technical classification. Any screen not used by apple will not be a retina display, even it it's better than apple's screens.
If you look close enough you can see the pixels on apple's screens too, but only a fool would suggest you do that.
If they can sell it for £150 in the UK, have it loaded with ICS and bless it with a half decent battery life, it will fly off the shelves!
@Dave Fox
quote: "You wouldn't see a resolution that high on an 11.6" Macbook Air"
actually, the rumours are that you will, soon. Apparently Lion is already capable of displaying "HiDPI" which, as i understood it, is twice the dpi in each direction. So it's likely macbooks and imacs in the near future will be sporting displays with greatly increased density of pixels.
But, it's not to provide more real-estate on the screen, just far far smoother graphics.
quote: "touch interfaces are suited to large controls anyway"
they're not going to make the controls smaller. the controls will be the same size. but the graphics and textures that display the controls will be twice the size, so appear much much nicer. at least, they will, until they're obscured by your fingers tapping on them
Retina display
I think the advantage of a higher resolution display will be that it is easier on the eye when reading books/magazines etc. Currently reading on any tablet gives me more eye strain than reading a paper book. Whether it will be worth the extra money (IF they charge more for it)....
