Google has discontinued Pixel Slate, its first flagship tablet announced in October 2018, as the company focuses on laptops like Pixelbook Go
The Pixel Slate was announced in October 2018 as Made by Google's first tablet and flagship, touch-only Chrome OS device. Tweets: @sportaphile , @redletterdave , @dcseifert , and @dcseifert Tweets: @sportaphile : 2023: “Google has discontinued the Pixelbook Go...” https://twitter.com/... @redletterdave : You can't get too attached to any Google product. With the exception of Gmail/Maps, every other Google product might be on the chopping block at any given moment. Google tends to kill just as many products as it unveils https://twitter.com/... Dan Seifert / @dcseifert : it's legit baffling that google has never updated the Pixel Book, arguably the best piece of hardware it ever released Dan Seifert / @dcseifert : my only guess here is the hardware team is still nursing wounds from the Pixel Slate distraction/mistake, but that was like three years ago!
Context & Ripple Effects
The Pixel Slate's quiet removal closes a short, well-documented arc. Google had already pulled its previous tablet, the Pixel C, from the store in late 2017, then positioned the Slate in October 2018 as its first touch-only Chrome OS flagship. By mid-2019 the company confirmed it was getting out of the tablet business entirely, canceling two unreleased smaller models while pledging continued commitment to phones and laptops.
What makes this discontinuation worth tracking is that the pattern didn't stop here: Google later canceled the next Pixelbook outright in 2022, and in 2024 scrapped a planned second-generation Pixel Tablet over sales concerns. Each cancellation reinforces the credibility problem commentators flagged at the time — that buyers can't assume any Made by Google device line will survive.
First-order effects
- Pixel Slate owners are left with an end-of-life device and no successor in Google's lineup, while the Pixelbook Go becomes the sole 'Made by Google' answer for anyone wanting a larger Chrome OS screen.
Second-order effects
- Chrome OS tablet momentum shifts entirely to third-party OEMs, since Google's own retreat removes the reference device that was supposed to anchor the touch-first Chrome OS category.
Third-order effects
- The cumulative record — Pixel C pulled, Slate discontinued, tablets exited, Pixelbook team dissolved, Pixel Tablet sequel canceled — trains consumers to discount Google hardware commitments, raising the bar for any future form-factor experiment to win early adopters.
The trend: Google's hardware strategy keeps contracting toward phones and laptops, with each tablet and premium-laptop experiment abandoned within a few years of launch.