Google to begin selling tablets directly to consumers this year, says Wall Street Journal
Over the last few months we’ve been hearing rumours that a Google Nexus-branded tablet was coming, but Google may have even more ambitious plans in store. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will open up its own on-line store, where it will market and sell tablet devices directly to consumers.
In an interesting twist, it’s said that the company won’t actually manufacture any of the offered hardware itself, instead leaving that duty to partners (Samsung and Asus who are both named). The tablets will reportedly feature official Google co-branding, however. Google is even said to be considering subsidizing the cost of the tablets, in order to make them price-competitive with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
The move comes in attempt to counter the massive success of both Apple’s iPad as well as the Fire, the latter of which has achieved success not seen by other Android tablets, econsultancy believe that Google is not satisfied with having Android OS running the Fire but ready to go battle with Amazon. Of course, Google tried a similar strategy when it offered the original Nexus One directly to consumers, an approach that didn’t work in the company’s favor. While there’s no exact launch date provided, the Wall Street Journal states that Google hopes to open the new store within this calendar year
Source: Wall Street Journal
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