First Google tablet now expected in July due to price cutting effort
Google's first foray into the tablet market with a co-branded Android device won't be with us until July at the earliest. The current design was ready to go for May, but Google pushed back the planned release …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already been reported to be preparing to sell tablets itself, while coverage framed the device as a challenge to Apple and Amazon. Earlier reporting also raised the prospect of a 7-inch tablet priced below the Kindle Fire.
The release delay makes price, rather than merely timing, central to Google's first co-branded tablet strategy. It turns a planned hardware debut into a test of whether lower pricing and direct distribution can strengthen Android's tablet position.
First-order effects
- Google shifts its tablet launch from May to at least July to pursue a lower price, postponing the start of its own-device retail effort.
- A lower target price sharpens the device's intended challenge to Apple and Amazon, whose tablet strategies had been identified as Google's targets.
Second-order effects
- Other tablet vendors face added pressure to defend their pricing if Google's revised target approaches the $199 level discussed in earlier Nexus tablet pricing coverage.
- Google's planned direct-sales model gives it more control over the retail price it uses to compete, rather than leaving that decision solely to Android hardware partners.
Third-order effects
- If direct sales and aggressive pricing become a repeatable model, Android's tablet strategy shifts toward Google setting the commercial terms for flagship hardware as well as the software platform.
- The tablet market's competitive focus would move further toward price realization: device makers must balance lower entry prices against the economics of hardware sales and distribution.
The trend: Google is testing a more vertically coordinated Android strategy in which it pairs branded hardware, direct sales, and lower pricing to compete with established tablet ecosystems.