

Google’s Nexus tablet may push Android partners out of the picture - zacharye
http://www.bgr.com/2012/01/05/googles-nexus-tablet-may-push-android-partners-out-of-the-picture/

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untog
If they do it, then the Android partners have no-one but themselves to blame.

Had they stepped up and made a device that people wanted then there wouldn't
be any need, but just like with the Nexus range of phones, it seems that
Google needs to drag their partners kicking and screaming into making devices
that customers actually want. Mind boggling.

~~~
bitwize
People want the iPad.

It's a little difficult for Samsung to make iPads.

~~~
untog
Couldn't you say the same about the iPhone? People wanted the iPhone. Plenty
of people now want, and are very happy with, Android phones.

The same hasn't been the case for tablets because the Android manufacturers
haven't made anything _worth wanting_. The iPad can be competed with, even if
it's only on price.

~~~
r00fus
Which could easily be explained by the fact that Android stole a whole lot of
iPhone's OS, and Samsung (the biggest Android seller) steals a lot of Apple's
hardware design.

Face it, if Androids selling today looked like they did in 2007 (which is to
say, a lot like a Palm, Blackberry or Nokia smartphone) they would NOT be
doing so well.

~~~
untog
And presumably Apple came up with the iOS5 notification design without so much
as looking at Android?

A quote from John Carmack comes to mind:

 _"Patents are usually discussed in the context of someone "stealing" an idea
from the long suffering lone inventor that devoted his life to creating this
one brilliant idea, blah blah blah. But in the majority of cases in software,
patents effect independent invention," Carmack wrote on Slashdot, "Get a dozen
sharp programmers together, give them all a hard problem to work on, and a
bunch of them will come up with solutions that would probably be patentable,
and be similar enough that the first programmer to file the patent could sue
the others for patent infringement."_

There is often one, single "best" solution to a problem. Someone else might
have already done it, but what are you going to do- deliberately make your
experience worse? Every phone manufacturer has borrowed at least _something_
from another, it's the nature of the beast.

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cube13
If this is true, it will be more of a shot at Amazon than Apple. The Kindle
Fire is an Amazon table that runs Android on the backed, not an Android tablet
with Amazon features. Also, I'm honestly not sure if Google can actually sell
an iPad(or even close to iPad) quality tablet for $200.

Amazon was able to create a very good tablet with the Kindle Fire, but they
have the content ecosystem(as well as the public used to giving them money
directly) to support selling the device for a loss. Google is attempting to
get that ecosystem, but they aren't there yet(and the public isn't generally
used to paying Google for anything). I can see $300 for the new tablet(Amazon
reportedly loses $50 per Kindle Fire), but not $200.

~~~
ajross
I think this is exactly it. The fact that the only manufacturer able to turn
Android into a success on the tablet is a _competitor_ doing an
unlicensed/unbranded clone must be deeply embarrassing.

The Fire really is a nice device at a fantastic price.

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dannyr
"It has already been widely discussed that an own-brand tablet from Google
would likely cannibalize its Android partners’ tablet sales, though there
isn’t much to cannibalize at this point."

This statement has no basis and contrary to what happened with Android phones
when Google launched the Nexus Line.

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saturdaysaint
_edit_ It's worth mentioning that the linked article is itself
speculation/extrapolation on a Digitimes rumor. Questionable. _/edit_

Google has some difficult questions ahead if Amazon starts making phones. It's
questionable if anyone else can justify selling devices like these below cost
- and even if anyone else could, Amazon has the most prominent storefront and
a more complete content ecosystem.

~~~
fluidcruft
Personally, after my experience with Android, I am completely uninterested in
investing in an Android tablet. A Windows 8 tablet on the other hand with
Microsoft actually in control of the software (which is what I understand they
are doing) -- even if it only has a web brower, office and dropbox, I'm so
there. Plus from what I understand Microsoft is making their App store free-
software friendly, so maybe even emacs (smearmacs!) and latex.

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Goronmon
>Who would purchase a $500 Samsung tablet when $199 will get you a slate “of
the highest quality” that will also be the first such device to receive new
software updates as they become available?

Someone who didn't want a basic 7" tablet? That's like wondering who would
ever purchase a $1k laptop when $250 netbooks exist.

~~~
stanleydrew
I think the idea is that the new tablet would be higher quality. So the
question seems valid: who would pay more for an inferior product?

~~~
danmaz74
There is nothing I miss from my Transformer, quality wise... (or otherwise,
actually :)

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padobson
If no one makes a popular Android tablet, then why do I have to wait 4-7 weeks
for my ASUS Transformer Prime?

[http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TF201-C1-CG-10-1-Inch-
Tabl...](http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TF201-C1-CG-10-1-Inch-Tablet-
Champagne/dp/B0067PLOW0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325790556&sr=8-1)

The hardware innovation that Android enables in the tablet market is going to
prove to be one of the best things to happen to portable computing.

The Tegra 3 would not have happened without Android around.

<http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-superchip.html>

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extension
If there's currently no market, then nobody has anything to lose by letting
Google try to create one. The iPad is already pushing them out of the picture,
but if the iPad didn't exist then there would be no picture out of which to be
pushed.

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jdost
From what I have heard, from contacts in the mobile hardware industry,
Motorola is not currently working on a Google tablet, at least not one out in
the next 3 months. I don't think that Google is going to push the other
hardware partners out of the scene just yet.

