Google to release a tablet in the next six months: Schmidt

Google’s ever-vocal Chairman, Eric Schmidt, has told an Italian newspaper that the company plans to bring a Nexus tablet to market in the next six months. While the Motorola Xoom is ostensibly the first “Nexus” tablet, since it runs a Google-moderated stock version of Honeycomb and will be the first with Ice Cream Sandwich, it is still very much a Motorola product.

According to Schmidt, “In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality,” though he didn’t give any specifics as to who would manufacture the device.  Considering Google is closing out a $12 billion deal to purchase Motorola Mobility it would make sense for the Xoom maker to be the one, but as they’ve shown with their latest Nexus phones, Samsung has proven a worthy OEM partner.

Schmidt also commented that Google is bringing a Siri competitor to the market, which confirms the rumours of Project Majel we brought you last week.

All in all, we feel that the time is ripe for a true Nexus tablet, especially considering the bad rap many Android tablets have had since Honeycomb’s release. With the unification of phone and tablet OSes in Ice Cream Sandwich, there is a renewed urgency for developers to make big screen-friendly apps, and for Google to monetize the growing tablet market.

Source: Notebook Italia
Via: Slashgear