Google tablet coming in next six months – it’s official

Head Honcho at Google, Eric Schmidt had revealed that the online giant will launch a tablet within the next six months and in turn will be taking on Apple’s iPad.

Schmidt revealed to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, “In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.” He’s also credited Apple founder Steve Jobs as “the Michelangelo of our time”.

There’s some clever wording from Schmidt in this announcement we think. Note how he uses the word “market” and not “make” or “manufacturer” when he says “..we plan to market a tablet..“. This leads us to believe that rather than produce its own hardware, Google will use its name as a marketing tool, coupled with some other hardware manufacturer, just like it does with the Nexus range of Android smartphones.

Schmidt also uses the term “highest quality” meaning the Google tablet will more than likely be a direct challenge to the iPad, rather than a lower cost alternative like the Amazon Kindle Fire. It’s possible that Amazon doesn’t have the market influence to take on the a tech giant like Apple and in this case, a low-cost alternative is the only viable option. Google on the other hand, already has a massive presence in the mobile device market so they could launch some very real competition for Apple.

Google keep their head well above the water in the mobile market pool with both its mobile operating system, Android and by launching huge marketing campaigns along with hardware manufacturers on release of new version of Android. A flagship phone is chosen for every new generation of the operating system, the phone is then marketed as a “Nexus” and runs an unmodified, “pure” version of the latest Android OS. The Most recent incarnation is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which was chosen to show off  the new OS, Ice Cream Sandwich (Google names each version after a desert). Previous Nexus’ include the Google Nexus S and the Google Nexus One.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the first version of Android designed to work on both smartphones and tablets, so can we expect to see a Nexus tablet to sit alongside the new Nexus phone? Maybe Motorola will be the hardware side of the “sandwich” since Google has just bought Motorola, and they were first choice for Honeycomb, the previous tablet-only version of Android which made its début via the Motorola Xoom.

Related posts:

1. Motorola won’t come first for Android, says Google
2. Samsung Galaxy Nexus release date made official
3. Google music store leaked – free songs on the way
4. €70 for first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, in China
5. Sony Tablet P is more expensive than iPad 2