Here’s great news for all gadget lovers across the world– Google is launching its tablet! This follows a long wait including a series of reports about the 7 inch tablet being developed by Taiwan’s Asustek. Finally the wait is over, with sources disclosing that the Google tablet is scheduled for a July launch, pushing it from its earlier May launch. This shift is believed to be an attempt to cut the cost of the tablet down from $249 to almost less than $200. This should enable Google to enter the competition with their competitor in the 7-inch tablet market, Kindle Fire by Amazon costing $199, which has sold over 5 million units in the first quarter of this year. While another competitor which also runs on the Android operating system– Barnes and Noble Color 7 inch touch screen tablet is priced at $169.
Despite Apple making attempts to rule the market with the launch of its iPad, the company could hardly maintain its monopoly in the tablet market. With highly expensive gadgets, Apple despite being a pioneer in the market failed to penetrate as much as it expected. And now with the launch of Microsoft and then Google tablets, Apple will have to redesign the price in order to remain in competition.
A Florida based Analyst commented “The tablet market is a huge challenge for Google at this point. They need to have a competitive product with the iPad.” No wonder Google is going to use the latest technology for its tablet. The device will run on the Android OS with and Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Many are of the opinion that the delayed release of the tablet by Google could also be because of the latest version of OS, the soon-to-launched Android 5.0 Jelly Bean update, which could be used in the new gadget. Once launched, Google is expected to sell its tablets though its own online store.
Android devices are already widely available in the market by established brands like Samsung, HTC and Motorola. Despite having acquired Motorola Inc, Google has been making efforts to market its latest device with its own brand name. The key features to look out for in Google’s latest release will be the sleek and slimmer model with the latest software, yet at a very competitive rate, much lesser than Apple’s latest version priced at $499.
Microsoft announced the launch of its own tablet, named Microsoft Surface on June 19th at a special event in Los Angeles. It comes in two variants based on the Windows 8 OS versions – Microsoft Surface RT and Microsoft Surface Pro.
The RT version meant for the home user comes with an Nvidia Tegra 3 ARM programming while the higher variant Surface Pro is meant to cater to the enterprise segment, built with Intel silicon. The price of the former is expected to be in line with the iPad, while the latter will compete with ultrabooks.
Given the kind of attention to detail paid to the design and aesthetics of its tablets, Surface is sure to affect all the tablets available in the market, especially with the Windows 8 versions. With the launch of the Surface tablet range, Microsoft will enter the tablet league and will be in direct competition with not just Apple – the tablet giant so far, but also the web giant Google, who is slated to launch its tablet.
The Google tablet, which is all set to debut over the coming week, has its competitive price of $199 as the key feature everybody is talking about. The 8 GB tablet is expected to have a 7 IPS inch screen (in-plane-switching, which enables wide viewing), smaller than the iPad’s 9.7 inches. Of course it comes equipped with a host of features and applications; though critics are of the opinion that iPad still has the maximum number of apps, especially modeled for the tablet format. Some of the expected Google tablet apps are Google Wallet, Android Beam, and the NFC, the near field communication. A 16GB version will also be available for $249, which is still a very competitive price.
What to watch out for, over the next few weeks is the response with which the newly launched tablets are welcomed in the market, and in what way can they affect the sales.
