Google first released a Pixel tablet last summer. A new variant seemed to be in the works, but the American tech company might just stop making tablets altogether.
The Google Pixel Tablet was announced in 2022. Starting in 2023, the tablet will go on sale. In the Netherlands you will have to pay a small 400 euros for it. In terms of price, the device competes with Apple’s cheapest iPad. With a fairly bare version of Android, Google has managed to make a pleasant tablet.
Reason enough for a successor, you would think. It seemed that way for a long time, but now it seems Google may be pulling the plug on the Pixel Tablet project altogether. Android Headlines reported this week that Google would scrap the third Pixel tablet, the Pixel Tablet 3. Then Android Authority reported that it would actually be the Pixel Tablet 2. Very confusing all around.
Google Pixel Tablet 2 would get official keyboard cover
Just last week Android Authority reported that Google would be busy working on the Pixel Tablet 2, which would come with an official keyboard cover from Google upon release. This would address a problem with the first Pixel Tablet. Namely, the criticism of that device was that it would not be well suited for users who want to work on it, for example.
An official keyboard cover, as Apple also offers for various iPad models, would partially solve that problem. The fact that Android has greatly improved since the Pixel Tablet, and is now better suited for productivity purposes due to several new software features, helps that considerably.
(Image: Google)
It is therefore somewhat remarkable that tablets are now suddenly being scrapped by the American tech company. According to Android Authority, the Pixel Tablet 2 is to be scrapped because Google is afraid of losing money on it.
Future of Pixel Tablets uncertain
Be that as it may, the future of Pixel Tablets is now hanging by a thread, writes The Verge, for example. If Google scraps the Pixel Tablet 2, we may have to wait several more years for the third variant (if it comes at all). If it does scrap the 3, it remains to be seen whether there will be a fourth version.
At the moment, Google has not yet managed to break into the tablet market. And the company has been trying for a while now: back in 2012, it launched the Nexus 7 tablet.
Android tablets still lag behind iPads anyway. For example, The Verge notes that there are nowhere near as many Android apps specifically for tablets compared to the amount of apps developed specifically for iPad. And that’s reflected in numbers: Apple is still by far the biggest player in the Tablet market.
