At this point, it’s not an ‘if’ HTC is working on the Nexus 9, but more of a ‘when’ is it going to be released. We’ve heard many a rumor, and even a few slip-ups from the likes of NVIDIA, who’s Tegra K1 is to be at the heart of the new tablet. So it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that HTC is behind this latest Nexus tablet and it’ll be a nice change from the previous two ASUS-made tablets, which were both excellent value for money (and still are for a lot of people). Later today, HTC is holding an event in New York, with the company poised to announce a couple of new smartphones and an interesting camera that appears to be some sort of life camera, similar to the GoPro.
According to Focus Taiwan, HTC’s President for North Asia, Jack Tong, has told the Press that the Nexus 9 marks “HTC’s commitment” to return to the tablet market. With yet one more hint that HTC has indeed been working with Google on the Nexus 9, it makes the wait for an official announcement even less bearable. Focus Taiwan went on to say that HTC is planning to release the tablet in Taiwan before the end of the year. While we’re expecting Google and HTC to announce the new tablet very soon, we might have a little more waiting to do.
It’s possible that Tong’s words are also about HTC returning to selling tablets of their own, outside of the Nexus banner. HTC did so before with the HTC Flyer, but it wasn’t their most successful device and the company never made another tablet since. Could HTC be working on their own-brand tablets with key features of theirs like BoomSound and HTC Sense? It’d be interesting to see what they could come up with if that ends up being the case, and there’s always room for one more tablet manufacturer, what with Samsung offering more tablets than LG and Sony combined.