Google, Asus expected to unveil $199 tablet this week at I/O conference

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Google is believed to be "taking direct aim" at Apple's iPad this week with the anticipated unveiling of a $199 tablet at its Google I/O conference, a new report claims.

Two people with knowledge of the matter have told Bloomberg that the co-branded tablet will be announced at the developer conference, which kicks off on Wednesday. One source said the device will show off the next generation of Google's Android operating system, code-named Jellybean.

Rumors emerged earlier this year that Google and Asus were teaming up for a 7-inch tablet. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Google would release a tablet in "coming weeks."

If accurate, the rumored Google tablet could represent the realization of chairman Eric Schmidt's promise last December that the company would deliver a tablet "of the highest quality" within six-months time. Google said in April during an earnings conference call that it was "quite focused" on the lower-priced end of the tablet market.

Transformer Prime
Asus' Transformer Prime tablet



The Mountain View, Calif., company's tablet is set to be announced on the heels of a setback to Android tablets in the U.S. On Tuesday, District Court Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Earlier this month, Market research firm ChangeWave called Samsung the only other manufacturer besides Apple that is showing "signs of market strength going forward." A May survey by the firm found 6 percent of consumers looking to buy a tablet in the next 90 days planned to purchase a Galaxy Tab device, compared to 73 percent for Apple's iPad.

The tablet market appears set for a three-way showdown between Apple, Google and Microsoft. Microsoft announced last week that it would release its own Intel and ARM-powered tablets under the Surface brand later this year, a move that reportedly left some PC makers feeling "betrayed." Multiple reports have suggested that both Google and Microsoft have opted not to rely on their vendors for success in the tablet market and have instead taken matters into their own hands.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 58
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    Having conceded defeat in the market that they didn't have a CEO informing them about beforehand, Google does what they do best: Cheapen themselves in less affluent markets.

    Long live the next iPad killer! (or until Google decides not to support it in about twelve months)

    You know why they call it the Google I/O?

    Because if you attend it, you just got fucked.
  • Reply 2 of 58
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member


    Apple, Google, Microsoft AND Amazon would be the showdown, if anything. I can think of reasons to doubt most of those, but not count them out. So far they’re all still seriously trying and have some mindshare.

  • Reply 3 of 58
    A rumored seven inch tablet costing $199? Where have I heard that before? Amazon, what's all this nonsense about?
  • Reply 4 of 58
    chuckdchuckd Posts: 34member
    Two words: iPad Mini.

    That is all.
  • Reply 5 of 58
    maccherrymaccherry Posts: 924member


    A race to the bottom of the sh** pile. Expect to see tons of those things wrapped up in plastic at the flee market by summer 2013.

  • Reply 6 of 58


    Nexus redux.


     


    Some people never learn.

  • Reply 7 of 58
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member


    Depends on how good the software is.  I think the ecosystem will continue to be a negative on Android tablets for quite some time.  Hardware matters a lot less (aside from the screen) on tablets than it did during the PC wars. 

  • Reply 8 of 58
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member


    On a related note, my dentist is offering discounted root canals for $199. You get to experience all the joy of zero pain management. They may or may not fix the right tooth, but you can get the second procedure half off. What a steal!

  • Reply 9 of 58


    Wow thats nice

  • Reply 10 of 58
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member


    another example of idiotic tech "journalism." "taking aim" would mean producing a product aimed at the same market as the iPad - a large format premium device. which a 7" $200 tablet is most definitely not.


     


    as everyone else with a brain has noted, it is in fact "aimed" at Amazon's Fire, which of course really is a threat to Google, having ripped off the Android OS along with setting up its own directly competing Android app and media store.

  • Reply 11 of 58
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,148member
    If Apple produced a similar sized iPad for anywhere up to $100 more this ship would be sunk. The iPod mini/nano strategy redux.
  • Reply 12 of 58
    inkswampinkswamp Posts: 337member


    Big deal. If it's running Android, it's already DOA. Android is the modern version of Windows, a half-assed, wanna-be OS slapped into cheap hardware. Someone at Google is laboring under the quaint delusion that what happened between the Mac and PC in the 80s applies to everything else in tech. I didn't buy cheap, crappy PCs running Windows back then and I don't understand why anyone would do that with Android tablets now. What's that old quote commonly attributed to P.T. Barnum? "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." Sounds like Barnum knew a few Android & Windows users.

  • Reply 13 of 58
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    A rumored seven inch tablet costing $199? Where have I heard that before? Amazon, what's all this nonsense about?

    And that worked so well for Amazon
  • Reply 14 of 58
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    entropys wrote: »
    If Apple produced a similar sized iPad for anywhere up to $100 more this ship would be sunk. The iPod mini/nano strategy redux.

    Apple is making a larger one at well over that price that is smoking the market already

    Case in point 26k units sold to a single school district just this past week
  • Reply 15 of 58
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member


    I have a feeling Samsung is going to take Android and fork their own version before too long, following the path that Amazon has taken. I don't think at this point Google really offers anyone much in the form of a guarantee, especially now that they've just invested 12.5 billion in their own hardware platform. If they don't start pushing Motorola hardware over other Android hardware, they're going to have to answer to the stock holders when the Mototanic starts sinking.


     


    And what's the business sense of producing products with negative margins? Is Google going to subsidize hardware costs with ad revenue? From what we've heard in the passed, they aren't making all that much from Android.

  • Reply 16 of 58
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    It certainly makes sense. Google have tried since Android 3.0 and OEMS started even before that to directly take on the budding [S]tablet[/S] iPad market. The only vendor having any success, albeit in unit sales not profit, is Amazon with the Kindle Fire which does nothing for Google or the other OEMs so why not try to compete against Amazon. It's certainly not competition against Apple and the same cost tablet as a Kindle Fire but with more apps and a similar Kindle reader app could be more appealing to buyers.
  • Reply 17 of 58
    uguysrnutsuguysrnuts Posts: 459member


    Why $199? Why not just load it up with crapadware no one want looks at and give it away for free? Oh lookee here, Android is winning!

  • Reply 18 of 58

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Alfiejr View Post


    another example of idiotic tech "journalism." "taking aim" would mean producing a product aimed at the same market as the iPad - a large format premium device. which a 7" $200 tablet is most definitely not.


     


     



    Although you are technically right, it is still taking aim at the iPad market.


     


    The simple reason is there is a huge market of dumb, uninformed consumers who ignore facts like this. They will think: "I got a tablet for 1/3 the price of an iPad", ignoring all the differences.

  • Reply 19 of 58
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post



    Having conceded defeat in the market that they didn't have a CEO informing them about beforehand, Google does what they do best: Cheapen themselves in less affluent markets.

    Long live the next iPad killer! (or until Google decides not to support it in about twelve months)

    You know why they call it the Google I/O?

    Because if you attend it, you just got fucked.


     


    It's amazing isn't it. Apple made the Mac. Microsoft copied it. Apple lost "the war". Apple made the iPod. Apple won "the war". Apple made the iPhone. Google copied it. Apple is about same or no.2 to Android market share. Apple made the iPad. Apple won "the war". 


     


    Gradually, after 30 years, I hope Steve can rest easy up above. Apple is gradually gaining much ground. iPod dominated. iPhone is a major force to be reckoned with that along with Android wiped Nokia, Sony Ericsson and BlackBerry completely off the globe. iPad will dominate for through 2015, very hard to imagine it ceding anything more than, say 35% of the non-garbage tablet market.


     


    Just go through the All Things D full Steve Jobs interviews. Steve saw all of this 10 years ago, and did things people back then thought, "for real?"... Only, for us to now see, how obvious and sensible all he (and the tribes he led) thought up was. I look forward to Tim Cook holding the fort, seeing Apple's visions of the past 10 years come to reality, and am quite curious about how Scott Forstall will emerge as the new post-Jobs post-Cook Apple CEO.

  • Reply 20 of 58
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by inkswamp View Post


    Big deal. If it's running Android, it's already DOA. Android is the modern version of Windows, a half-assed, wanna-be OS slapped into cheap hardware. Someone at Google is laboring under the quaint delusion that what happened between the Mac and PC in the 80s applies to everything else in tech. I didn't buy cheap, crappy PCs running Windows back then and I don't understand why anyone would do that with Android tablets now. What's that old quote commonly attributed to P.T. Barnum? "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." Sounds like Barnum knew a few Android & Windows users.



     


    The issue is that Android gained a lot of steam for smartphones because, let's face it, it just ripped off Apple. However, Apple, whether it knew it or not, was right to delay the iPad just long enough so that it was a leap ahead of iOS/Android for smartphones. Also, once the Judases had been kicked out of Apple (you know who), along with further innovation (not just a phone OS dumped onto a bigger screen)... iPad and the iPad ecosystem will very likely prevent Android from coming close. 


     


    I honestly thought Honeycomb would give iPad some heat but surprisingly it hasn't. On the smartphone side, sure, go nuts, but I've yet to see credible Android tablet ecosystems.

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