Another day another rumor about this elusive 7 inch Android tablet from Google that we’ve been hearing about for months. For those who need a quick refresher: Google likes to partner with a company every year and release a device that runs Android completely unmodified. Said device is called the Nexus. The first Nexus was made by HTC, the next two were made by Samsung. Now people think that the Nexus concept is going to be extended to tablets, with the first one being made by ASUS. Said tablet will compete against the 7 inch Kindle Fire, which already runs Android, but is such a custom implementation of the operating system that you can’t even tell it’s actually Google’s OS. This unannounced Nexus tablet, according to the latest rumor, will cost between $199 and $249, it’ll be announced as early as May, and … that’s all we got. The source goes on to say that Google sought hardware partners for the device in late 2011, around the same time the Kindle Fire came out, and that HTC was being too anal about co-branding, while Acer didn’t have the right kind of tooling to make tablets, so ASUS won the contract.
What’s this thing going to look like? Back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, ASUS showed off a 7 inch quad core tablet called the MeMO 370T. After it was demoed we’ve heard absolutely nothing about it since, which suggests to us at least that Google saw that thing and demanded that it be turned into the first Nexus tablet.
Why 7 inches and not 10 inches like the iPad? That’s a tough one, but we think it has something to do with both price and usability. As nice as the iPad is, it isn’t exactly fun to hold a 10 inch piece of glass for an hour or two, whereas 7 inches is much more convenient. That and $199 is just a fantastic price point; it’s practically an impulse buy.