With Wednesday's launch of its Nexus 7 tablet, Google gives the current tablet market a much-needed jolt of energy.
The Nexus 7 is the tablet that Google should have launched with a year ago. The
Nexus 7
packs a high-performance, no-compromise set of features at attractive
prices--$199 for the 8GB model and $249 for the 16GB model.
This winning--on paper--combo will immediately put the Nexus at
center stage. It also will make all current Android tablet makers
reevaluate their own offerings on the market. But selling a tablet
directly to consumers online, with no clear changes to the app ecosystem
behind it, won't be enough for Google to gain market share at Apple's
expense.
Google Nexus 7Manufactured by Asus, the Nexus 7 tablet represents the first commercial manifestation of
Nvidia's Project Kai.
Nvidia designed the Kai reference platform to provide manufacturers
with a shortcut blueprint of how to create a competitive tablet at
consumer-friendly pricing.
At CES 2012, when Nvidia and Asus announced plans to produce a
Tegra 3 tablet for $250, the two companies clearly had the
Amazon Kindle Fire in their sights.
Amazon Kindle FireThe
Kindle Fire, which shipped last fall, is the best-selling Android
tablet thanks in large part to its low price of $199. But the Kindle
Fire takes a lot of heat for its mediocre 1024-by-600-pixel display, its
forked Android operating system, its limited specs (no camera, little
onboard storage, no expansion), and its slow performance. Sales numbers
for the Kindle Fire have
dropped off since the initial burst of enthusiasm from consumers; but no other Android tablet has made a significant impact, either.
Google Takes Charge of Its Own Tablet--Sort Of
Google's move into the tablet arena with its own branded Nexus tablet
is significant for several reasons. First, it shows that the company
recognizes how important it is for an OS maker to be deeply involved in
creating hardware that complements its own software.
For evidence, look no further than the mess of compromises and
mediocrity we've seen from Android tablets over the past year, including
poor choices in weight, processors, display, and design.
In today's Apple-dominated, post-PC age, a tablet with hardware
designed independently of its operating system is unlikely to emerge as
an impressive flagship device. And certainly that approach isn't the way
to generate the Apple-level frenzy that every tablet maker yearns for.
Microsoft Surface tabletThat's why Microsoft jumped into the PC hardware fray for the first time in 37 years, with last week's introduction of the
Microsoft Surface tablet.
[Read: "
Microsoft Hardware: Successes and Failures"]
And it's why Google is expanding on what it already offers with its
Nexus phone line
by now offering its own tablet. The company should have taken this step
last year when it launched Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the first operating
system designed specifically for tablets, instead of crossing its
fingers and hoping for the best with the
spectacularly unimpressive Motorola Xoom tablet.
To what extent the Nexus 7 embodies Google's vision of a tablet is
unclear. One area where Google may have influenced its design is in the
tablet's inclusion of near-field communication capability. But beyond
that, the core specs for the Nexus 7 are the ones that Nvidia and Asus
talked about as far back as CES.
Back then, Asus went so far as to introduce the
Asus Eee Pad MeMo 370T
with specs, price, and a time frame for availability that are quite
similar to the Nexus 7's. Since CES, however, Asus has said nothing more
about its MeMo plans. Now we know why.
Clearly, all parties recognized that for the Android tablet OS to
succeed, something had to change. And the reality of Kai should have a
significant impact on current tablet makers.
How can Toshiba's
Excite 7.7 tablet,
priced at $550 and carrying a 1280-by-800-pixel display, compete with
Google's Nexus 7 when the latter offers the same screen resolution and
costs $300 less? The Toshiba does have a 0.7-inch larger screen, but
both have 16GB of memory and both run on an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.
Meanwhile, Amazon is rumored to be prepping its coming
Kindle Fire replacement
for a midsummer launch. Whether Amazon will step up its game with that
tablet remains to be seen; but based on today's news, we believe that
the company will need to have a competitive answer to remain firmly in
the mix.
Here's a chart that compares the specs of the Google Nexus 7 to five other tablets:
The Missing Elements
So far, Google hasn't indicated that it will sell the tablet anywhere except at its
Google Play online store. Consequently, consumers who want to do their own hands-on comparison of the Nexus 7 with other tablets will be out of luck.
Google's approach with the Nexus 7 addresses a relatively small
subset of the problems facing the Android tablet market. Among the other
issues to be resolved in the bigger picture are better-resolution
displays and improved, lighter designs.
Perhaps most significantly, Google's conference has as yet lacked any
discussion of the OS- and device-fragmentation issues that plague
developers. I routinely hear these issues cited as the number-one reason
that developers choose to make an iPad app instead of an Android app;
and the tiny market share that Android tablets have thus far achieved
has done nothing to convince developers to fully embrace the Android
tablet ecosystem.
Google played up the fact that the company now lists some 600,000
apps in the Play store; but it didn't say how many of those apps are
optimized for and work well on a tablet.
Google Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)The
app ecosystem, unfortunately, still remains a sticking point for
Android tablets--and a key factor that makes it harder to recommend an
Android tablet to consumers eager for the next great, cool app.
The bottom line is Android still has a long way to go to surpass
Apple's iPad. But when we look back, the delivery of the Nexus 7, with
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, may mark a turning point in the Great Tablet
Wars.
Apple fans anxious to know when the next iPhone is coming out may
want to circle Sept. 21 on their calendar. That is the date when Verizon
Wireless employees will begin a vacation blackout, lasting through
Sept. 30, a “trusted Verizon employee” told TechCrunch. Earlier rumors have said that Apple will announce its next iPhone on Sept. 12, and release the new handset roughly a week later.
As usual, Apple isn't talking about the new iPhone yet, but numerous reports have claimed that it'll have a 4-inch display,
instead of the 3.5-inch screen found on every iPhone to date. It may
also support 4G LTE networks for faster data speeds, and sport a smaller dock connector
that could cause some accessory headaches. Near-field communications
may debut in the next iPhone, allowing tap-to-pay features at retailers,
but this rumor seems less likely than the others.
