One can expect a lot from the upcoming Google I/O, a three day annual developer conference, with the high possibility of an official Android device being launched at the event.
Rumours have been doing the rounds for a while now that along with Asus, Google has been working on developing a Nexus Android tablet. CEO Eric Schmidt had dropped hints regarding the same six months back. Earlier in February this year Andy Rubin, who leads Android, suggested that Google will have to work on establishing themselves well in the tablet market. Similar to having introduced their Nexus One smartphone in 2009, Google may now introduce the Nexus 7, a 7 inch tablet. Focused on wanting to rightfully offer consumers for what they pay, Google seeks to give more than what Amazon’s Kindle Fire offered, a unique experience at $200.
The Nexus 7 will probably be available for $150-$200 ($200 being the most likely), will come complete with a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and Nvidia’s ULP GeForce GPU, Wi-Fi and a screen resolution of 768×1280 pixels, a camera on the front and the Chrome browser. Besides, going by the information accidentally leaked on Google’s Play store, apart from the unlocked version of Galaxy Nexus being the first smartphone to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 7 will be the first tablet to run on the new platform.
Jelly Bean is the next major release, also a successor to Ice Cream Sandwich. However, though there was a clear difference between updates in versions of Android earlier, Jelly Bean may not be a major update, with changes in the search bar and a new background. It is unclear as to which other devices will run on 4.1 and if users can easily switch from 2.3 to 4.1. There is a chance that all attendees of Google I/O may go back home with a Nexus 7, but that’s only a possibility.
Google may launch five more Nexus devices running on 4.1 sometimes later in the year, working in favour of Android. Several partners could team up and work on modifying the operating system, making it available for use just in time during the shopping season. Live sessions of Google’s I/O will be broadcast on YouTube, enabling users to watch the events online, if not present in San Francisco.
