Though they haven’t always been the most commercially popular smartphones, the Nexus lineup has acted as the flagship device for each new iteration of Android since version 2.0. The hardware is designed to work seamlessly with the latest Android code as a demonstration of the OS the way Google intended it to be. Nexus smartphones have acted as a testing ground for new innovations and provided developers with a model handset for working within the Android ecosystem. But when Google released Android 3.0, a build designed especially for tablets, there was no Nexus Tablet to go along with it (despite persistent rumors). The best we got was the Motorola XOOM. Though the XOOM lacked a Nexus name, it served a similar purpose. The hardware was developed closely with Google and the slate deploys a stock version of Android. Like the Nexus lineup of smartphones, it is typically the first to receive the newest update to the Honeycomb code. For all of this, the XOOM still doesn’t carry the sort of weight that accompanies a device with the Nexus tag.
Enter Ice Cream Sandwich, designed to merge the smartphone and tablet trees of Android, and enter new rumors of an upcoming Nexus tablet. Responding to questioning from an Italian news outlet, Google’s Eric Schmidt hinted that a Google Experience tablet is in the works. It’s hard to tell from the translation, but it is being reported that we could see a Nexus Tablet built to Google’s spec within the next six months. It is possible that Schmidt simply meant Android 4.0 tablets from all manufacturers would be hitting the market during that time period, but a Google-branded device isn’t out of the question.
Even if we do see a Nexus-branded tablet, it is unlikely it will be the iPad killer most will chalk it up to be. As stated earlier, Nexus devices haven’t ever been seen as big sellers. We’ll have to wait to see the numbers on the Galaxy Nexus release, but it is likely any Nexus slate would mostly exist to set an example for other Android hardware manufacturers to follow.
