Meet the $200 Google Tablet - Poised to Take on iPad, Surface, Fire?
Jeez, it's only been a week since Microsoft's Surface was unveiled, and we're still getting comfy with the specs on Apple's upcoming iOS 6. Proving it's always best to come late to a party, Google is set to unleash its own low-priced Android hand-held on the world, and make the tablet party even more interesting.
According to Gizmodo's Australia office, an interoffice training memo for Google employees laid out what's coming, possibly as early as this week, at their I/O Developer's Conference.
Asus has built a 7-inch Tegra 3 tablet especially for the search giant, replete with the new Jelly Bean operating system - the first device to officially run it. Tech site Wired believes the version of Jelly Bean offered will be known as 4.1, based on a previous Play store leak. A Nexus-branded device, the new tablet will be known as the Google Nexus 7.
The Nexus 7 has a 1.3 Gigahertz quad-core engine, coupled with a GeForce 12-core GPU and holds court with 1 GB of RAM. The device is slated to come in two storage sizes - an 8GB model that comes in at a highly competitive $199 and a beefier 16 GB variety at only $50 more. At this price, not only is the iPad in trouble, but so is the pending Microsoft Surface tablet - another blow for the Redmond company, still trying to get its Windows 8 foot in the larger mobile device door.
The thing is, not only will Apple have to do a double-take (and potential change of course) based on Google's new offering, so will outer-lying computing device makers, such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon. At $199 for a full-fledged computing device, the Nexus 7 shoots a resounding volley at the popular e-reading and app-running Kindle Fire. The Nook will also have to step up its game based on Google's new kid on the block.
With the Nexus 7's iPad-like ten-finger touch screen and a stepped-up 1280 x 800 resolution display, expect some at Amazon and B & N to demand an absolute tectonic shift.
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