Google, who had previously announced that they were stepping away from the tablet market in 2019, have announced that they are currently working on a Pixel tablet for a 2023 release. The tablet, as many other products, was announced at the company’s I/O developer conference on Wednesday.
Details of the tablet are limited at this point, however we do know that it will be running the Google Tensor processor found in the Pixel phones, and is consumer focused, designed for entertainment rather than work.
The Android tablet market took a big blow when Google stepped away in 2019. In a rather definitive statement, senior vice president of devices and services at google Rick Osterloh stated that “Google’s HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward,” seemingly indicating that the company was done with tablets for good. As a result, very few companies other than Samsung have developed Android tablets since, allowing them to dominate the market.
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
Google identified during the pandemic that tablets were an important part of many people’s lives, using them as a hub for smart homes and entertainment. Google have experience with tablets, with their Nexus range being some of the most successful Android tablets on the market. However, they fell flat compared to Apple’s iPad, as they were treated as secondary to their other hardware. Android was not ideal for tablets and developers were generally making apps for Android phones, meaning a Nexus tablet was treated as no more than a large, cumbersome phone.
As a result, one of the most important things Google want to achieve with the release of the ‘Pixel tablet’ is market confidence. They want to let consumers know that they are dedicated to creating a proper tablet, rather than a large phone that can’t manage phone calls.
