Google Axe Pixel Slate Tablets
After a brief stint in the tablet business, Google is reportedly axing the Pixel Slate, cancelling two unreleased devices and instead will focus on its Pixelbook laptop line.
The news will not affect Chrome OS or third-party Android tablets, and a source has confirmed the company will continue to support the Pixel Slate tablets currently in use by consumers.
“Chrome OS has grown in popularity across a broad range of form factors, and we’ll continue to work with our ecosystem of partners on laptops and tablets. For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider.
Employees that were working on the unreleased and now discontinued Pixel Slate have been moved to work on the Pixelbook line.
The unreleased tablets were expected to be smaller than the Slate released last October and were expected to launch in 2019.
Google has struggled to stake its claim in the tablet market, after its first tablet the Andoird OS running Pixel C was released in 2015 but failed to make an impression on the public.
The Pixel Slate was designed to take on the likes of Microsoft Surface Pro and Apple iPad Pro but again couldn’t live up to the competition.
Leaning into the notion of a laptop-tablet, the Pixel Slate was equipped with Intel’s latest Celeron or Core m3, i5 or i7 processors — offering the power of a computer in a tablet device.
Reportedly its high price and numerous software bugs resulted in poor sales.
So Google is out of its homemade tablet business, but be on the lookout for its next-gen Pixelbook laptops which are tipped to launch this year.