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WSJ is confirming what many of us have suspected all along. According to the Journal, Google will be entering the tablet market with their very own Nexus tablet (possibly more than one) that they will sell directly to consumers via their online webstore. Big “G” wont actually be manufacturing any of this hardware themselves, instead allowing ASUS and Samsung to do all the labor for them. It’s also being said that Google will be subsidizing these tablets, keeping them around a $200-ish price-point where they plan to make up some of the costs through Play Store purchases. These tablets will challenge Amazon’s red-headed Android tab, the Kindle Fire.
And yes, before you remind us that Google’s tried the direct-to-consumer route before and it didn’t exactly work out so well for the Nexus One — you’re right. But, the world wasn’t exactly ready for unsubsidized $600 handsets, not to mention carrier demands no doubt got in the way of their plans. Makes you wonder if this tablet idea takes off (and why the heck shouldn’t it?) if Google will consider reentering the off-contract smartphone handset business once again? I know, we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here, so let’s deal with matters at hand.
What do you guys think of this news? Would you consider buying a $200 Nexus tablet direct from Google? Would you like them to offer a more expensive, higher-end model (possibly from Samsung)? So exciting!
Of course I would. I would buy everything directly from them no questions asked. As long as they open the “Web Store” to the world instead of just 4/5 countries like it was with the Nexus One. (I still bought it from them anyway)
With a tablet they can sell a wifi only device which they could never do with a smartphone so that cuts back on having to have contracts with the carriers themselves which will help keep the price low and allow them a much easier time selling them themselves instead of having to go through a carrier. I have a nook tablet and it does everything I need it to do but there are a couple of hicups with it but i am sure would be solved by having a tablet built for android and instead of the butchered job B&N did with their offering. So yeah I would be happy to purchase a tablet straight from google and have timely updates and access to a full and working build of android. On top of that ASUS are doing a much better job with their tablets then the other android manufactures are which is a good thing in my book. ASUS is getting out of the standard fair of things with both their transformer line and their upcomining padphone
I’d totally buy it. Although I wonder how pissed Amazon will be and wouldn’t it make them slam the door in Android’s face.
Why would Amazon slam the door in Android’s face? I see why they’d be annoyed with lost sales but they totally makeover Android to the point to be unrecognizable. They don’t have to pay anyone for the base code, just change it up. Plus Google doesn’t make a penny from Fire’s, Amazon makes the ad money/app store income.
I would buy this in a second to complement my Transformer Prime.
They have a whole app store that is android based, people have purchased products from them on there. They’d be in a heap of trouble to close all of that down and just forget about it. Wouldn’t be a smart move on their part. Healthy competition is good. Just like my co worker always states. “The consumer is sovereign and insatiable”… consumer always wins when companies go at it.. But from apples perspective the consumer is nobody. Apple doesn’t care about people…its the truth.
Apple is the devil. Lol
When I think “Nexus” I don’t think low end. I’m surprised they wouldn’t call it something else and keep their Nexus line for their high end, cutting edge tab
who’s to say it won’t be… maybe not in ALL categories but in the ones that matter it might be top tier…
if they could bring a 8gb tegra 3 1gb RAM tablet with an average screen to market with a $200 price tag, as long as it had a microSD card slot i’d buy one, the CPU and ram are the only things that really get outdated within a year or two. if they could make those two things strong and leave the rest at OKAY specs i’d buy it because it would last through many updates
I hope they eventually get the Padfone Nexus lol.
Now your’e just making me drool.. :d
That would be siiiiiiiiiiick!
The only way that will work is if they do massive advertising. Not everyone reads the forums all day waiting for clues about the next Nexus device. The normal consumers will have no clue this tablet even exists.
I think they can advertise it well on Google.com and YouTube ads. That’s like 99.9% of the internet right there =p
Remember when they did massive advertising for the Nexus One and their entire buying phones online revolution flopped for them? This is different because tablets don’t require a carrier and are less about “I need to see how it feels in my hand/pocket”, but I don’t think it’s a sure thing.
If it happens I think it will be a huge success… but I’ve been wrong before. And so has Google.
It flopped for them because they dont know how to provide customer service. It’s that simple. And Google still doesn’t know how to provide service and support, so they will continue to fail in the consumer market.
ASUS would be the best for a Nexus Tablet. I would like a super cheap 7″ option (to directly compete with the Fire) and a high end 10″ (or even 11″-12″) model to compete with the iPad.
Hell ya I would buy one and Hell ya I hope they make a $2ooo model with a 60″ screen and a 75 core processor that only will run on a 240 circut. I will buy ten!
Ballllllller… O_o
If you asked me 6 months ago if I would JUMP for a Nexus Tablet, I probably wouldn’t have been so sure. But now that I got the Galaxy Nexus, YES I will buy a Nexus Tablet.
Eleven comments as I type this and no one has mentioned how bad, in light of past experience, customer service would be for a direct from Google purchased tablet.
They could easily have the support page pointed at the manufactures website instead of the google one and have the page state that its backed by google and depending on the issue it would either go to google or to ASUS or who ever created the hardware and the companies can work together on solving the issues that crop up. Its a win win for everyone to be honest
That’s pretty much how the Galaxy Nexus support page works. It directs you to the Sammy site.
Thats confusing as hell. Either Google needs to handle all customer service for their devices, or they will fail. I hate apple, but the way they handle customer service makes their customers keep coming back.
My nexus one which I purchased at full cost from Google, before the 1 year warranty was over google stopped supporting their customers and everyone was pushed to HTC customer service with issues.
HTC customer service is horrible, I was literally laughed at, when I called about my usb port falling out.
Sent phone in and was told it would cost 250$ to fix a 40$ usb port, it was deemed as user damage. I learned that HTC has/had crappy ports. If you start to have to wiggle your charger to get it to charge do not wait for it to fall out.
If google doesn’t handle all customer service and any issues surrounding this product I know for one I would never purchase directly from google again. HTC is lucky I stayed with them after that ordeal. I still see red when thinking about the htc customer service experience (over 4 hours to get someone to file a ticket so I could send my phone in, was repeatedly told I had to go through t-mo who had nothing to do with purchasing the phone.
TL;DR htc cust svc sucks, google will fail if anyone but them deals with cust svc and warranty
Actually, I was thinking at how poor the N1’s sales were because a ton of people didn’t even know it existed for the longest time. Only people like us who read tech blogs regularly will know about it being released. Let’s hope this time they have TV ads for it like they have for Chrome.
i just wish they would have left the 370T alone i was looking forward to it
If they sell subsidized, off-contract phones, count me in. I would love to buy a high-end phone for $200-300 and not have to be tied to a carrier for 2 years.
This will probably be my first tablet purchase ever.
Same here. All I want is a decent tablet for under £200 (yes, pounds, not dollars). None exist at the minute; a gaping hole in the tablet industry!
I’ve been waiting for Windows 8 tablets to start popping up before I dropped the $400+ bomb on one but if Google does this I will most likely get one. It’s not just about the price point but I trust Google to make quality products. I dont need a super dense display either. As long as this has at least 1GB of RAM I’d go for it. Tegra 3 would be awesome but something Tegra 2 equivelant or better would be fine.
I would buy one for sure. Sounds good to me!
Holy crap, WOULD BUY
I will buy one in a heartbeart!
Pre-ordering the day it goes up on the site..
Agreed, I am waiting to make this my first tablet purchase
I’m sure all the other OEMs would have NO problem whatsoever with Google selling ASUS hardware below cost…
You bring up a good point, Kennedy. But apparently, other OEM’s were approached about making a low-cost Nexus tablet but Google was turned down. HTC supposedly said they felt it would “hurt their brand.”
I’m still hoping for a multi-user tablet a la Chromebook, but for a sub-$200 tablet that El Goog will keep updated with the latest Andy wares I may just buy 2.
My transformer can be multi-user with a custom rom. Easy.
I love the idea but my dream tablet has to have a cellular radio so that I don’t blow my phone’s battery tethering all the time. I have a sinking feeling that such an off-contract device would be wi-fi only.
Yes
http://www.polishtheconsole.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg
The moment I see this online imm getting it.
I would. I just hope it has a better display than the galaxy tab 7inch
I’d buy one.
I’ll definitely buy one of these for my parents.
Im not a Tablet person, I prefer Smartphones, Netbooks and Desktops. But I know my parents will love this Nexus Tablet.
I’d prefer if they offered a more expensive high-end tablet manufactured by ASUS rsther than Samsung
A $200 Google branded Asus tablet? I think I’d sell blood for it. If it were Samsung… I’d have to think about it for a bit. I love my Galaxy Nexus, but I’m really irritated at Samsung over the state of accessories for the LTE version. There’s no reason the [proper!] car dock shouldn’t be out at this point, and they haven’t said anything about when it might hit either. If it will hit…
Can’t wait to hand over my money, can’t believe I said that.
Just bought the fire fore $139. At 200 its looking kinda pricey.
i would rather have a high end tablet, having a 200 dollar limit on price is well for most people but it also restricts the kind of hardware quality inside of the tablet i would rather have an amazing 500-600 dollar tablet then a cheaply made and “gets the job done” kind of tablet, or at least have multiple tablets at different price points to meet everyone’s needs, also although the amazon tablet is 200 dollars it relies a lot and is focused around making purchases in the amazon market, so if Google did the same thing they would have to restrict the software and ports to encourage consumers to make purchases in the play store, at least with a high end tablet we have more freedom
What would be flipping awesome is if they some how would make this 7 inch tablet run seamlessly with their nexus products or even all android products so you can swipe tasks to your android device or vice-versa and just be able to have both of them connected with everything, reply back to a text with the tablet, pickup a phone call..etc..
Google must bring quality along with the subsidized price. That’s when it will be successful.
Don’t forget they didn’t have as much clout back in 2010 as they do now. Too bad the only carrier don’t something about two tiered monthly payments is still only T mobile. Besides the obvious fact that having a unsubsided phone in the USA still doesn’t mean crap.
I’m not looking for a bargain basement tablet. I don’t want Android to be the datsun to Apple’s Ferrari tablet.
I’m in. I need a bigger screen to read comic books on. ~$200 for a decent 7 inch tablet, would be amazing!
Yeah, every once in a while I wanna read a good comic/graphic novel and a low price tablet with decent specs would be nice.
Why would I want to purchase a Nexus tablet from Google?
1. I won’t get timely updates
2. I won’t get even decent customer service/support after I buy the device.
PASS. You Google fanboys can keep eating this up. Not sure why you do though.
Subsidized via…AdSense? ??
There is a great market for 7-inch tablet. When I show my 7-inch nook color running ICS, people seems interested. Lot of comments are “it’s perfect for kids”. For people without a computer, a 10-inch tablet is suitable. For people with bunch of desktop/laptop already, a 7-inch tablet is more complementary, at least in my case.
For the price of $199, yes I would buy Google Nexus Tablet. Since it’s in Google direct control, I hope Google will optimize their tablet to the max to give it a good performance.
It will have to have a powerful CPU or I’ll pass. So many of the good games are being made for higher end processors, it would be disappointing to have a mediocre CPU and jerky frame rates and bad graphics. Lack of support is not a problem, I bought a Nexus 1 and overall it’s one of the greatest phones I’ve bought. They still fetch a pretty penny for used ones, after all this time.