Typical of this time of the year, much of the talk surrounds what is likely to be this year’s Nexus offerings. Who will make them, what specs will they have and how much will they cost. However, this week the news on Nexus seems to be much more on the topic of departing Nexus devices. It was only yesterday when the first real confirmation came through that the Nexus Player had been discontinued, as after months of being unavailable it was finally pulled from the Google Store. Now it looks as though it is the turn of the HTC Nexus 9 tablet.
Via a comment provided to CNET from a HTC spokesman, HTC has confirmed that they are no longer manufacturing the Nexus 9 at all. To be fair, this might not come as much of surprise as the tablet market is one which has been in decline for some time. Not to mention, the Google Store did stop selling the Nexus 9 about a month ago. Which like with the Nexus Player, is always a clear indication that the device was on its way out anyway. However, this latest report does at least act as an official confirmation on the future (or lack thereof) of the Nexus 9. It is one thing to be pulled from the Google Store, it is quite another for the manufacturing company to officially confirm they have stopped producing units.
Interestingly, according to the details, the HTC Nexus 9 has not been discontinued due to a lack of demand. With HTC confirming that the Nexus 9 had simply reached the end of its product cycle. While this might fuel debate as to whether a new Nexus tablet could be on the way, it would seem highly unlikely to be the case, due to the wider tablet market saturation in general. Either way, in spite of the confirmation that the Nexus 9 is no longer being made and that the Google Store has already stopped selling the tablet, it is still available from HTC directly for those who would like to pick one up before the current limited stock is fully depleted.