According to a Digitimes report, Google is working on two new versions of the Nexus 7 tablet that are expected to be thinner than the currently available model, and would launch ahead of the 2012 holiday season. The two Nexus 7 tablets would be aggressively priced at $99 and $199, with the lower price believed to be aimed squarely at Apple’s much-anticipated iPad Mini, which is expected to retail for around $250 and launch in October.
The Nexus 7 is already an incredible tablet, easily the best 7″ tablet on the market today, and a $99 version of the Nexus 7 would be extremely difficult to pass up even with competition from Cupertino. Of course, Google would likely have to make some tradeoffs to get to the $99 price point, perhaps opting for a cheaper SoC, a lesser amount of storage, or ads to recoup costs.
Alternatively, it could accept the loss on the tablet in hopes that customers would make up for lost revenues by way of Google Play ecosystem purchases. Of course, as Android Central’s Phil Nickinson points out, Google ecosystem outside of apps arguably lags behind that of Amazon, Apple, and even Barnes and Noble.
Asustek, the company which manufactured the current Nexus 7 tablet and would likely get the nod for future Nexus tablet devices, denied the report.
[via Digitimes, Business Insider, Android Central]