Roger Fingas
Google is officially abandoning its tablet efforts, including two unannounced devices, a spokesperson revealed on Thursday.
"For Google's first-party hardware efforts, we'll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate," the person told Business Insider. The exact nature of the cancelled devices is uncertain, but it's confirmed that the company will not produce a follow-up to the Slate, introduced in October.
It did mention that both products were smaller than the 12.3-inch Slate, and meant to ship simultaneously sometime after 2019. It's quality assurance problems that led to them and the entire tablet program being scrapped, Google explained.
Hey, it's true...Google's HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward, but make no mistake, Android & Chrome OS teams are 100% committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market (consumer, enterprise, edu)
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) June 20, 2019
People assigned to the defunct hardware — numbering around 20 — were reportedly informed on Wednesday. Most are expected to switch to the Pixelbook laptop team.
Google has struggled to make much headway in the tablet market versus the Apple iPad and Microsoft Surface. While 2012's Nexus 7 was a minor hit — arguably leading to the iPad mini — subsequent devices haven't caught on, in part because of an absence of tablet-oriented Android and Chrome OS apps.
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74 Comments
Android is such a steaming pile of horse manure as it is. It comes to no surprise that Google has abandoned tablets. They literally have zero clue what to do.
Uhm, this is the opposite of a win! The secret to great products is great competition - losing an adversary doesn't translate into a great win. This is a pity and the battle moves squarely to Microsoft and its Surface line - who would have thought?
Good.
Zero reason to try and compete with the iPad. Concentrate on the Pixel line including the excellent Pixel Book, speakers and Nest gear, areas they are seeing some success in. Don't try to be all things to everyone, it doesn't work and only serves to dilute resources as well as invite comparisons that reflect badly on the rest of Google hardware.
They will not improve on the iPad experience nor even the Surface line for that matter and to their credit they're recognizing that, but if one of the OEM's thinks they can pull it off then have at it. Google has other projects with much better potential futures that deserve attention.
Next up: Either give a lot more resources to improving smartwatches, work on much better hardware integration and unique features for a Google-branded one, or stop hardware development in that area too. That's another area failing. Either commit 100% or give it up IMHO. This half-hearted stuff is a silly waste of engineering and manufacturing.
No, this is a positive move by Google. We just have to wait to have it spun for us.
marsorry said:
Oops, too late. Ok, if this were needed to ensure great products, how do you explain the success of the iPod, which essentially had no better competitors than the iPad does? It's not like there aren't other crappy devices to choose from -- Samsung makes tablets, right? Just like with the iPod there were other devices, but Apple continue to improve their device. They do so because they want to, not because the market makes them do it.