Rumor of a Google-branded tablet device have been roaming the Internet since December when Chairman Eric Schmidt was quoted as saying the company was working on "a tablet of the highest quality" that would be released in the first half of 2012. Now a new report claims to have more information on Google"s tablet hardware plans.
News.com reports that Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch, claims that the tablet will begin production sometime in April. Shim also claims the tablet will be a seven inch model, run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and have an impressive 1280x800 screen resolution.
There are other rumors that Google could price this tablet at $199 in an effort to compete with Amazon"s Kindle Fire device, which runs on a highly modified version of Android. However, Shim claims he doesn"t know what the final price point might be. He does say that Google plans to ship between 1.5 million to 2 million units of the device.
Technically, when and if Google completes its planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility later this year, it will automatically own a number of tablet devices; specifically the various versions of the Motorola Xoom and the Motorola Xyboard. None of those tablets has been a sales success for Motorola.