Report: Google planning its own Nexus tablet?

By Geoff Duncan March 28, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Although Google is certainly not the biggest name in Android phones, the company has kept its finger in the game, first launching the Nexus One “superphone” at the beginning of 2010, and following up with the Nexus S at the end of the year. Now, a report has Google preparing to launch a Nexus tablet computer of its own running Android 3.0 Honeycomb—and its hardware partner in the project might be LG rather than previous Nexus partners HTC and Samsung.

According to mobile-review.com (Russian), the potential Nexus tablet will follow the philosophy of the previous Nexus phones: offering a “pure” Android experience to both consumers and developers, without the frills, extra applications, and interfaces layered over the top by other manufacturers and carriers. Although Google’s efforts to launch a Web-based retail storefront for Android devices failed rather spectacularly last year, Google’s Nexus products have developed a stalwart following, particularly among Android app developers.

Currently, the only tablet on the market featuring Google’s Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system is the Motorola Xoom, and Google said it does not plan to release Android 3.0 source code to developers any time soon: apparently Google regards Android 3.0 as a rather rushed one-off to bring Android to tablets, and wants to go back and straighten things out before making a formal code release. Google’s decision to withhold Honeycomb code has raised questions about Google’s commitment to Android as a free and open platform.

The report of Google working with LG on an Android tablet has some industry watchers speculating that Google may be working with LG’s glasses-free 3D technology.

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