[Nickos-V]

Information is out there that Google will offer a 7" tablet made by Asus. It will be available for purchase in May.

To keep cost down, Google decided to not use Tegra3. Very likely will use one of, Nvidia Tegra2, TI OMAP4 or Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM chip.

Price will be $200 US or under. Maybe even as low as $150 US.

It is being made to take on the Kindle Fire. ie, Amazon is taking business away from Google with their own app store. Google makes their money off of people buying apps from Google Play. The more people that buy the Fire, the more customers Google loses.

Specs should be fairly similar to, but slightly better than, Kindle Fire.
http://en.wikipedia....iki/Kindle_fire

Info was obtained from these stories:
http://eeepc.net/goo...ra-3-processor/
http://www.androidpi...-tablet-release
http://www.forbes.co...-priced-at-149/

I FOUND THIS TO BE VERY INTERESTING AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!
Kindle Fire is 2nd hottest selling tablet after Apple's iPads. Nexus tablet should kill the Fire off!!!

With Nexus tablet, no more worry about open market/incompatible apps and fooling around with build.props! Also, should get good firmware support for the Nexus too!

[astrayred]

Nickos-V, on 22 March 2012 - 09:04 PM, said:

Information is out there that Google will offer a 7" tablet made by Asus. It will be available for purchase in May.

To keep cost down, Google decided to not use Tegra3. Very likely will use one of, Nvidia Tegra2, TI OMAP4 or Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM chip.

Price will be $200 US or under. Maybe even as low as $150 US.

It is being made to take on the Kindle Fire. ie, Amazon is taking business away from Google with their own app store. Google makes their money off of people buying apps from Google Play. The more people that buy the Fire, the more customers Google loses.

Specs should be fairly similar to, but slightly better than, Kindle Fire.
http://en.wikipedia....iki/Kindle_fire

Info was obtained from these stories:
http://eeepc.net/goo...ra-3-processor/
http://www.androidpi...-tablet-release
http://www.forbes.co...-priced-at-149/

I FOUND THIS TO BE VERY INTERESTING AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!
Kindle Fire is 2nd hottest selling tablet after Apple's iPads. Nexus tablet should kill the Fire off!!!

With Nexus tablet, no more worry about open market/incompatible apps and fooling around with build.props! Also, should get good firmware support for the Nexus too!

Indeed, it's a great value proposition for consumers, but I can't see Google's other partners (eg Samsung, Motorola, ASUS themselves) being pleased with this, since it undercuts them massively.

[Nickos-V]

astrayred, on 23 March 2012 - 08:19 AM, said:

Indeed, it's a great value proposition for consumers, but I can't see Google's other partners (eg Samsung, Motorola, ASUS themselves) being pleased with this, since it undercuts them massively.

ASUS is making the tablet for Google. =)

The story is that ASUS decided to drop their 7" Tegra3 tablet and just produce the Google tablet. ie, They did not want to compete against Google because many will go for the Nexus with similar specs and much lower price. ie, Samsung's T3 tablet would have sold for around $250 or even $300.

Also, ASUS should still make a good profit off the Nexus tab. It will be Google who will sell the tablet and break-even or take some loss on it. Samsung just entered the 7" tablet market which has been mostly ignored by the big, branded tablet makers the last few years. The focus for them had been on 10" tablets. That is why Kindle is the best selling tablet for Android. Very nice specs plus good price = Success!!!

Google is doing only 7" so the 10" market should still be open to other competitors out there. No one else was stepping up to take on the Kindle Fire and so Google decided they had to do it themselves. Money from Android is made from app stores since the OS is given for free.

I believe Qualcomm Snapdragon does pretty good against Tegra3 in benches and hope they go with that chip. 2nd choice would be TI OMAP4 chip which is good too.

I am sure more information and news will be available around April 15. I just hope we can see May release for it. The sooner the better for us all.

PS, China will have to drop their prices and come out with better specs to compete or else they can forget about people buying from them.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 23 March 2012 - 06:18 PM

[Tharm]

After browsing around slatedroid for awhile I saw someone noted the new Asus MeMo 370T and started to get excited! I then ran across this thread and it seems the Tegra3 tablet you mentioned would be the one and the same? Either way it sounds like Android enthusiasts win!

http://api.viglink.c..._13325626617861

MeMo 370T link above.

This post has been edited by Tharm: 23 March 2012 - 11:23 PM

[Nickos-V]

Tharm, on 23 March 2012 - 11:22 PM, said:

After browsing around slatedroid for awhile I saw someone noted the new Asus MeMo 370T and started to get excited! I then ran across this thread and it seems the Tegra3 tablet you mentioned would be the one and the same? Either way it sounds like Android enthusiasts win!

ASUS had a prototype made for the 370T but have dropped it. 370T maybe no more from what I can tell. Instead, they will come out with Google Nexus tablet which most likely uses Snapdragon chip. @ that price, I am very happy with Snapdragon chip. Newest Adreno 220 GPU does very well in benches.
http://androidandme....-as-low-as-149/

Google's Nexus tablet will likely = ASUS' 370T but without Tegra3. =)

Still very good news for many consumers. I think will sell in May (or June) but more info will come in mid to late April. I know demand is going to be crazy for that tablet. Also, I believe they will make it available worldwide. Now, where can I pre-order mine?

My single core tablet serves me well and is still good till end of 2012 & part of 2013 but I definitely will look at getting one of these after.

[Tharm]

Lets hope the rumors are true and this tablet comes out with the rumored specs and price. I have been trying to get an Aurora for a few months now but always seem to run into issues (shady suppliers, factory issues, insane demand), but it seems it might all work out in the end. I for one would love a decent spec-d cheap tablet from a stateside manufacturer. I second your statement, where can I preorder one .

[Nickos-V]

Tharm, on 24 March 2012 - 01:06 AM, said:

Lets hope the rumors are true and this tablet comes out with the rumored specs and price.

Specs and price are true because Google wants to destroy K. Fire & the Nook too. For taking customers away from Google Play store and costing them money.

Release date is not set but ex-Google CEO had said summer 2012. Many are predicting details and release to be unveiled May 8-10 @ CTIA Wireless Expo or (late?) June @ Google I/O event.

Either way, the tablet should be out by around summer time. But, if the price is $150 then demand will be fairly crazy and not sure how easy to buy early on. If $200, still high demand for it but maybe can find a Nexus tablet to purchase somewhere.

Keep in mind, you and others will have to wait 3 to 4 months to buy one of these. I think worth it but you have to be fairly patient.

http://www.techzek.c...-priced-at-149/
http://www.tabletrev...ed-in-may-2012/

PS, Also, some Chinese tablet makers maybe coming out with dual core A9 tablets so that maybe another option to look at. Very curious to see what new products Ainol comes out with in April. Though the Nexus tablet will have better build quality, better firmware releases and everything just working without messing around with stuff. So, it would be the better choice if you can wait for it.

[astrayred]

Nickos-V, on 24 March 2012 - 04:48 PM, said:

Specs and price are true because Google wants to destroy K. Fire & the Nook too. For taking customers away from Google Play store and costing them money.

Release date is not set but ex-Google CEO had said summer 2012. Many are predicting details and release to be unveiled May 8-10 @ CTIA Wireless Expo or (late?) June @ Google I/O event.

Either way, the tablet should be out by around summer time. But, if the price is $150 then demand will be fairly crazy and not sure how easy to buy early on. If $200, still high demand for it but maybe can find a Nexus tablet to purchase somewhere.

Keep in mind, you and others will have to wait 3 to 4 months to buy one of these. I think worth it but you have to be fairly patient.

http://www.techzek.c...-priced-at-149/
http://www.tabletrev...ed-in-may-2012/

PS, Also, some Chinese tablet makers maybe coming out with dual core A9 tablets so that maybe another option to look at. Very curious to see what new products Ainol comes out with in April. Though the Nexus tablet will have better build quality, better firmware releases and everything just working without messing around with stuff. So, it would be the better choice if you can wait for it.

Some points to take into consideration with Google tablets

- Apparently, historically Google stuff are more open-source friendly. I have a Galaxy S2 and the developers for Cyanogenmod 9 for SGS2 frequently complain about the lack of source code for drivers, thus making development much more difficult.

- It's almost certain that the Google tablet will be far more popular than any Chinese tablet, thus meaning a larger audience, and a larger developer base as well. There's only 1 person working on Cyanogenmod 9 for the Aurora, fun_ over at XDA. When Ainol stops releasing software updates for the Aurora, we are screwed.

[pillowtablet]

The day after I learned of the MeMO 370T's existence this article was published and I have to say I'm really disappointed with the cancellation rumours from Android & Me, but I still have hope for its release since their source is just a "senior employee at a supply chain company based in the United States" who wished to remain anonymous. Are there any official responses to any of these rumours? All these articles 'confirming' the cancellation and partnership point back to Android & Me and their shady source.

[MA83]

I only hope that it at least has a front facing camera and bluetooth. I don't care if the tablet is only $150, video chat is a very important function for these devices.

[Nickos-V]

MA83, on 26 March 2012 - 01:21 PM, said:

I only hope that it at least has a front facing camera and bluetooth. I don't care if the tablet is only $150, video chat is a very important function for these devices.

Internal 3G, GPS, Bluetooth. Likely no.

Front facing video camera. Likely yes. I would be surprised if they did not include a video camera. Most Chinese tablets have this and so I would think Google would do the same. But then, I checked K.Fire & saw no camera for that. So, who really knows until the Nexus tablet specs are released.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 26 March 2012 - 08:25 PM

[Sunrise]

This will be interesting. It'll further enhance my view that the Google brand could be on the verge of falling.

[Roman2025]

I have been bulk pricing tablets for a customer of mine. I could see making money off of a 7" IPS Screen A10 platform at around $150/pc but only if you are ordering 2000 pcs at a time . Unfortunately, I just don't do that much business. If I did though, I would be designing a tablet like this for resale through my website in a heartbeat. As it is, I have actually been talking with Visture . We are working with Visture to design a custom 7" device with an IPS screen for this particular customer. But this customer is ordering a huge number of devices so they can pretty much tell us what they want and we can make it for them .

We were discussing cheap China tabs and I thought this an interesting bit . Hopefully it is relevant lol.

-Roman

[astrayred]

Roman2025, on 28 March 2012 - 06:49 PM, said:

I have been bulk pricing tablets for a customer of mine. I could see making money off of a 7" IPS Screen A10 platform at around $150/pc but only if you are ordering 2000 pcs at a time . Unfortunately, I just don't do that much business. If I did though, I would be designing a tablet like this for resale through my website in a heartbeat. As it is, I have actually been talking with Visture . We are working with Visture to design a custom 7" device with an IPS screen for this particular customer. But this customer is ordering a huge number of devices so they can pretty much tell us what they want and we can make it for them .

We were discussing cheap China tabs and I thought this an interesting bit . Hopefully it is relevant lol.

-Roman

If you are doing that can I make a few suggestions?

By far the biggest weakness of China tablets is software support. Some companies like Ainol release rubbish software, while with others you don't know if you will be getting updates down the road. I think it will be great if the tablet you are designing came with full Cyanogenmod 9 support, that way you get upstream updates easily. To do that though, you will need developers and also source code for the driver libraries. Not sure how easy is this to get for China components.

Hardware wise, I would love to see the 28nm Snapdragon S4s. However I have a feeling if you are gonna use that the tablet will end up being too expensive. Still, I think the CPU needs to be at least 45nm and below. The Allwinner A10 is a decent chip, however the fact that it's fabbed at 65nm means that it consumes way too much power and gets too hot.

It would be interesting to see what you can do with the RK30x chipset or that new dual-core Mediatek.

[NiGhToLoGy]

Is it just me the only one dying to know more about the Nexus tablet?

I would definitely go for it if the price is under the expected 199$. But I cannot wait until they come out with something, some press note, or official statement on at least when are they going to announce the tablet. arrghghghghhg

[Nickos-V]

NiGhToLoGy, on 05 April 2012 - 02:57 AM, said:

Is it just me the only one dying to know more about the Nexus tablet?

I would definitely go for it if the price is under the expected 199$. But I cannot wait until they come out with something, some press note, or official statement on at least when are they going to announce the tablet. arrghghghghhg

Amlogic & Rockchip now have dual core Cortex A9 CPU chips. Tablets will come out with them in next 2-6 months. Amlogic 2-3 months. Rockchip probably 3-4 months. 7" tablets with these chips will most likely sell for under $200 too ($150-200). Maybe some lesser brands going for under $150???

Nexus tablet is about 3 months away from release.

If you can't wait. You can buy a cheap AllWinner A10 tablet for $105-110 shipped that you can use for now until the new ones come out. There are couple of choices available. Like this one:
http://www.pandawill...ite-p59730.html
or
http://www.ownta.com...i-hdmi-4gb.html
*G3 comes without charger. Make sure you can buy one somewhere else or use USB for charging it.

You can then sell or give it away when you go to upgrade. Or you can just wait the 3-4 months for the new tablets to come out.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 07 April 2012 - 01:34 PM

[C0ach]

astrayred, on 28 March 2012 - 11:17 PM, said:

If you are doing that can I make a few suggestions?

By far the biggest weakness of China tablets is software support. Some companies like Ainol release rubbish software, while with others you don't know if you will be getting updates down the road. I think it will be great if the tablet you are designing came with full Cyanogenmod 9 support, that way you get upstream updates easily. To do that though, you will need developers and also source code for the driver libraries. Not sure how easy is this to get for China components.

Hardware wise, I would love to see the 28nm Snapdragon S4s. However I have a feeling if you are gonna use that the tablet will end up being too expensive. Still, I think the CPU needs to be at least 45nm and below. The Allwinner A10 is a decent chip, however the fact that it's fabbed at 65nm means that it consumes way too much power and gets too hot.

It would be interesting to see what you can do with the RK30x chipset or that new dual-core Mediatek.

There is always new hardware on the horizon. Developing software takes much longer as we all know. It takes a great deal of time when the end product is a mishmash of components that hope to work together most of the time. Nobody likes software bugs, but then the old monolithic model of computing still appears to work for Apple, as it did for companies like IBM, Burroughs, Sperry Rand, DEC in prehistoric times. The trouble with an open model, which allows other hardware manufacturers to build to a generalized specification, like the various Android revisions, is that no single manufacturer controls the complete life-cycle of the product - there are so many interdependencies. I personally feel that with so many Android revisions coming out that manufacturers like Ainol and many others simply cannot factor in the cost of long term software support for their products. They bring in a new faster version every few months and barely have time to include working software. Of course this happened in the early PC days, when Microsoft and a few large manufacturers were driving the specification for PCs, some cut-priced component manufacturers weren't supporting their products for very long because it cost them money. Selling hardware earns them money and the more they have to pay for software development and support, the less profit they make. Of course, longer term it pays to have sufficient ongoing development and support as existing customers become part of the sales force.

Android's biggest obstacle is to evolve their software with sufficient buy-in and support from the hardware manufacturers, who are of course rushing to include the latest multicore CPU/GPU's, the best interfaces, the best screens, the most extensive connectivity and accessory options in a package that barely makes a software beta release, let alone RC or production - despite the hardware being sold everywhere! The cellphone market has a product life-cycle of but a few months, just long enough for the rechargeable battery to die. The tablet world is becoming very similar - I'm a bit concerned that when we all discover that we can get a great (but less portable) computing experience with a $500- laptop or PC, which may give several good years of service, in comparison to the untold anguish from barely tested tablets whose batteries expire barely a year after we've become fond of them, we might think that portability is a little overpriced.

[Nickos-V]

C0ach, on 08 April 2012 - 12:10 AM, said:

The tablet world is becoming very similar - I'm a bit concerned that when we all discover that we can get a great (but less portable) computing experience with a $500- laptop or PC, which may give several good years of service, in comparison to the untold anguish from barely tested tablets whose batteries expire barely a year after we've become fond of them, we might think that portability is a little overpriced.

I agree that upgrading OS is a problem on these tablets since have to wait for tablet maker to release newer version. Seems that every 4-6 months there is a new product and they drop support for their *older* tablets.

For me, I run Android 2.3 w/3.0 UI. I am happy with this OS version. Works well and supports most apps. My tablet battery is about 9 months old and seems to last pretty well still. But what you say makes sense. Battery will wear out and have to replace it sooner or later. Not that hard for those that can solder and always easy to find another one from China. Would have been nice if they would do batteries with contact points (not wires) to make replacing them easier. A good brand tablet will have a battery that will last 2-3 years.

I have a laptop too but would not want to carry it around. My tablet allows me to do simple web browsing, reading, listening to music, watching videos, reading news and play some games.
15" Laptop: 2.25 - 2.75 kg (heavy to lug around), about 4 hours battery life, total cost $600
7" tablet: 350 g (light to carry), about 5 hours battery life, total cost $158
10" tablet: 600 - 700 g for compare. Still better than carrying a laptop.
10" netbook: 1.2 - 1.5 kg, 3-4 hours, $250-320.

PS, there are some good 7" tablets out there that can be bought for just under $150 shipped. No need to spend $200, $300 or $400 for a tablet. Also, with Nexus tablet will have option for better quality, dual core tablet for under $200. In addition, there are even 10" tablets for under $200. Though buying from China can be a little tricky with all the clones out there.

This post has been edited by Nickos-V: 08 April 2012 - 11:59 AM

[syin16]

really hope that google will implement open-hardware based chip like TI Omap on their google tablet . The full datasheet and pins on the omap can easily be achieved.

Really hope the price will be under $150 and come with good battery life

[ArisGrUk]

Only time will tell what spec the device will have and when (most likely July) google will release their new tablet

I want/would prefer a 9.7 or 10.1 inch tablet from google rather than a 7 inch one...................