How long have we been hearing about a sub-$100 Nexus 7? It feels like forever but, after ASUS denied their involvement in such a project you’d think that’d be the end of it but, there’s fresh news on the cheap tablet. Coming from DigiTimes I suggest you ready the salt, however, they’re claiming that Taiwan-based Quanta will be building the tablet. It’s also said that the tablet will feature a single-core ARM processor built by China’s WonderMedia Technologies and the display will be made by Taiwan’s HannStar Display. I doubt you’ll see an IPS in this one.
If Google were to bring a $99 Nexus 7 it would shake up the tablet market a lot more than the $199 Nexus 7 did. For starters, it’d get Android into the hands of a lot more people, as well as push the Play Store a whole lot more as well. Making Google’s digital content get that little bit closer to competing with iTunes. A tablet for this cheap from Google would pretty much put an end to tablets from manufacturers in China and the east as a whole. A lot of these don’t ship with Google Apps, cutting off access to the Play Store, making a Nexus 7 a far more attractive option.
I worry about what such a low-end tablet would do to Android though. A single-core tablet – let alone phone – won’t perform anywhere near the $199 Nexus 7 so I have to ask, why? Google are clearly looking to bring a 32GB version of the tablet to the market and I think adding more to the formula will work better than pushing a cut-down Nexus market. People think an LG Nexus will be bad news for the Nexus name, how about a tablet that can barely play Angry Birds?
[Source: PhoneArean]