When Google announced the Nexus tablet, I was surprised to see they didn’t seem to be aiming for the iPad. With a $199 starting price and a 7 inch form factor, Google is clearly taking aim at the devices that have defined the Android tablet market thus far; e-reading based tablets like the Kindle Fire and the NOOK Tablet both run off Android, but use their own proprietary app and content stores, and Google wants a piece of that pie!
So I posed this question to the other Gear Diary editors:
Carly: How much will the Nexus tablet pull from the Kindle Fire and the NOOK Tablet?
Dan: Watch the fire drop by at least $50
Judie: Totally. Amazon will fight dirty. We win.
Dan: So let’s take bets — How long do I keep the Nexus 7? Over and unders. Go.
Mike: Between 1 and 2 weeks. I think it is total weaksauce … just barely above the hardware of the Fire, about equal to the Galaxy Tab 7 2.0 … and without any Amazon benefits.
Judie: He’ll have it for GearFest [editors get-together in mid-July]; we’ll tear it apart on video, and then he’ll list it on eBay.
Dan: That’s my guess!
Mike: I didn’t make much past a week with the Galaxy Tab 7 2.0 … and at least that had a camera! For me, all of these die because none of Google’s non-app stuff is even as good as iBooks. Amazon offers something worth paying for … Google doesn’t.
Judie: That’s it. Exactly.
Carly: I agree. I also think this is a case of too little too late for Google. Outside of the hardcore Android fans no one knows Nexus branding. Everyone knows Amazon and B&N. Either they campaign crazy hard, or this accidentally drives up more sales of the eReader tablet market.
Dan: I am actually pretty intrigued by this device. It brings the 7″ form factor with a good screen, reportedly decent built-quality, at a nice price point. While it does not have automatic access to amazon content the way the fire does, the tablet solves a huge number of the hardware issues I found with the fire. It has BT, it has volume controls, it is thinner and lighter. It has few enough compromises that I will finally be able to find out if I actually DO like the 7″ size (and prior disappointments have been device-related) or if not liking the hardware or OS on previous fails was just an excuse for not liking the size.