At the end of the Android part of the Google I/O keyword, we’ve had a “Something Else” style moment with some new hardware teasing. The Pixel Tablet is Google’s next attempt at using a tablet, and aside from the fact that it uses the company’s first-party Tensor chip, we basically know nothing.
Well, except that it won’t come until 2023. We’ve seen some renders, albeit briefly, and it’s fair to say this isn’t the iPad Pro.
It looks almost like a Nest Hub from the front…
In an interview with the edgeAnd Google’s Rick Osterloh discussed why Google is coming back to tablets. In short, we are showing the world that the company really does care about Android tablets. The pandemic has made it clear that tablets still have a unique position as consumer devices, whether that’s games, media or the web. And Google wants to make a companion for Pixel phones, but with a larger screen.
It’s fair to doubt how committed Google is to tablets. We have been here several times. It was a honeycomb. Then the Nexus 7 was it. The Nexus 10, Nexus 9, Pixel C, and Google have thrown their weight behind tablets enough times before and in 2022 we’re still in a world where the iPad dominates.
Software has always been the real problem, but Google has been putting out more lately, first with Android 12L and then with Android 13. Google also announced at I/O some of what we can expect for tablets, starting with 20 first-party apps that will be last Good for use on a larger screen. Third-party apps like TikTok, Facebook, Zoom and Canva are also set to receive tablet-centric updates, while Google says it’s also making it easier to discover tablet-optimized apps on the Google Play Store.
So, what do you think then?
