DigiTimes has a new batch of rumors about a forthcoming Google Tablet (or Google Nexus Tablet, as some publications prefer). Mentioning undisclosed sources in whatever Taiwanese supply chains, this batch starts with rather trivial "leaked" specs of $199 7 inch, 16:9 caliber, Android 4.0 tablet, then, in major technology publications (think PCWorld, and the like) there's no lack of speculation of what it will be look like. British Daily Mail even muses that it will be an entertainment tablet that "comes after Google creates or updates web stores for books, music and films" and will launch as soon as March or April.
With the pricing of $199, everyone agrees that Amazon's Kindle Fire, after iPad a second best selling tablet in the last season is an obvious target. However, to outsell Fire by sheer numbers, it better start competing with what the ASUS Eee Pad MeMO 370T, a most awaited $249 7-incher of 1280x800 resolution can do performance-wise.
This leads to inevitable question: will it look like re-branded Tegra 3 based ZTE T98 (which is apparently has a common prototype with MeMO 370T)? I don't like the idea, because nVidia simply doesn't like Google Android: they have proven it with failure of Motorola XOOM and Honeycomb. Jelly Beans betas must be running on Google Tablet prototypes right now in the Google developer labs. If these platforms are based on Tegra 3 cores, I can feel the pain of those JB developers who just started to think in terms of bringing hardware rendering to Android 5.0.
An obvious and cleaner alternative to this mess might be forthcoming TI OMAP5430/5432 chips, but will be these available en masse before March/April, or even May? These chips run better at 2--2.5 GHz with 2+ GB of fast (DDR3) RAM, so they can easily outperform many netbooks of today. The only problem is, again, availability and higher costs. But Google's standing is (I believe) good enough to do the orders of 50 mil of Tablets, so the unit price can be lowered to desirable $199.
Then, there are those miraculous Qualcomm's Snapdragons S4 chips which even boast to outperform OMAP5's, at least in the entertainment department. Their availability for March/April launch is even murkier. However, HTC as a rumored manufacturer for Google Tablet has good experience with Snapdragons, so who knows.
Also-rans include ZiiLABS ZMS40 100-core "monster by Creative, and whatever MIPS Technologies can offer apart from what their Chinese "friends" did to the "world's first ICS tablet". This last Ainol Novo 7 Basic "tablet" has disappeared from Sears so fast I for once thought it was sold out. But it was not. It's crappiness doesn't just end up with miserly 800x480 cheapo LCD panel resolution, it's just that too many apps aren't compatible with ICS (or Honeycomb, if you wish) Android framework implementation on MIPS architecture. World's first ICS tablet should be given for free to all developers wishing to write a compatibility layer/native MIPS apps. Or generate some sort of mini-Chromium OS on it.
When, or in anticipation of, screen lag elimination in Android 5.0, I would love to see a pen input in Google Tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Note style. 1920x1200 resolution of the screen would be lovely, too. But it's just me. It won't happen for your $199 worth of Google Tablet, at least for its first model.
Then, there is this almost forgotten Chrome OS project. If TI OMAP5 chips or any other ARM Cortex A15 SoCs capable of emulating DirectX 9...11 hardware rendering capabilities could be used, what might stop Google short of using at least dual-boot: Android and Chrome OS, the latter at least when 10-inch Google Tablet 2 would be docked to the "smart" keyboard? I'd prefer QNX instead of both these OSes, but it's just me. But in any case, Chrome OS tablet from Google might give some new jolt to the Google Cloud computing idea. If still sticking with Android tablet, a mini-version of the Google highly successful desktop Chrome browser is long overdue. Ha! Beta of Chrome for Ice Cream Sandwich is available! Somebody listens....
Talking about 10-inch Google Tablet, success of ASUS Eee Pad Transformers may hint of direction where things with Google tablets may go. To beat Transformers, the following is highly desirable on 10-incher:
-- USB Host;
-- USB 3.0 Host (with power boost);
-- support of many dongles, like 3G, OTA HD TV, or White Space modem.
On the rendering above, Mashable pictures what strangely reminds me of my own October/November thoughts ("Tabletology", see an unfinished article below) about how 5....7....8 inch pocket tablet should like like, at least about bezels widths. However, I don't like Applesque (iPadesque? iPhonesque?) placement of single button -- and the whole idea of bringing a single button for the user to enjoy.Whatever. Steve Jobs was always a god (or semi-god if we talk about 7-inch caliber tablets) to Googlers.
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