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HTC’s name has been in the wind as one of the manufacturers responsible for making the next Nexus tablet, though with little to go on since the initial rumor it’s understandable if there’s still doubt of that happening. It looks like those plans could still be on as a report from the Wall Street Journal suggests Google and HTC have been hard at work on the next Nexus tablet (known as the Nexus 9) for the past few months.
The report suggests HTC engineers have been flying out to Google’s headquarters on a frequent basis to ease the collaboration process (which certainly isn’t that hard to believe considering how important of a device this is).
HTC hasn’t had success in the tablet space. It all began with the untimely launch of the HTC Flyer, and continued through an uninspiring HTC Jetstream. It felt like just yesterday that HTC threw in the towel and decided to focus on smartphones alone, but being tapped as the manufacturer of the next Nexus tablet seems to be a good reason to jump back into the fold.
The report touched on Google’s decision to go with HTC over more seasoned veterans such as Samsung and ASUS. According to it, Google doesn’t want any one or two manufacturers having a “monopoly,” of sorts, over the Nexus-making duties. It’s a move that’s consistent with how the line has operated so far, with manufacturers usually getting the honor of working on two different devices.
We’re hoping this launch will inspire HTC to step back into the tablet game and challenge LG, Samsung and ASUS to a game they’ve all gotten quite good at. For now, though, we’re just hoping to get our first glimpse of the thing ahead of its glorious debut.
Keep it under $300, with an aluminum build.
The HTC Flyer was an amazing tablet from 2011, back before the tablet industry is what it is today. Hell, it was a 7″ tablet with Gingerbread. It was a battle that they could not win.The hardware was sound, it’s just the OS, and form factor weren’t ready for mainstream. I LOVED the Flyer. I can’t wait to see the Nexus 9.
Imho the Flyer is one of the worst tablets I’ve ever had the displeasure of having to use. The experience was just awful.
Well either tell us whether the problem was hardware, and actually argue against Derek’s assertion, or just be dismissed the clueless guy repeating the prior comment thinking he was disagreeing.
The hardware was never the problem on early Android. It was just a pain to use due to the laggy software. The iPad 2 was released a couple months earlier and the experience was like night and day.
This. I stay clear of even today’s Android tablets because the experience on the iPad 2 and later has always been consistently good.
unfortunately i agree….it took the android world quite a while to produce a tablet that was as good as the iPad 2. The platform as a whole is miles better…but cant buy just an OS right!! lol
Yea the Flyer was just bad timing really. After seeing Honeycomb most people didn’t like the idea of buying a Gingerbread tablet that would ultimately run oversized phone apps. It also took an awful long time for it to be updated past Honeycomb’s launch.
I’m hoping the hardware doesn’t make it a too little too late kind of deal. I feel like a good bit of people are already disappointed in not seeing it launched mid-late summer like all previous nexus tablets.
I hope so too. if its anywhere near as good as the Nexus 10 was, this is going to be great. The N10 was underrated…i cant recall an Android device in recent memory that was supported for so long. That SoC is STILL blazing fast, and that display is STILL amazing…well done.
In fact, are there ANY Android devices (phone or tablet) from that era still alive and kicking??
If its got that k1 chip in it, then it’ll be a perfect portable console. Also as long as I can run kodi and stream to TV or connect through hdmi I’m sold.
Hopefully they surprise us all and give us a Aura 1.0 tablet
I wish they would just announce it already or have an event… I know we’ve just been hearing “rumors” for the past few months, but we are so over due, I’m hoping at the very least its at least a 9inch tablet. I want something that can finally replace my iPad. If not… I’m going the Windows route.
The only tablet that I have is a very old Acer that was loaned to me by a friend. You know it’s nothng great when you go to give it back and they tell you to keep it. The Nexus 9 is exactly what I’ve been waiting for in terms of size and running pure Android. Hoping it doesn’t cost over $350. If they could pull that off it would give the tablet market the kick in the pants it sounds like it needs.
I actually dug the EVO version of the Flyer, at the time my bf worked for Sprint and they had an extra one I used whenever I’d go see him on lunch, and at the time, I don’t think there were any tablets I wanted more than that one.
I’d definitely buy a new HTC tablet, it’s bound to be excellent.
Generally I’m the first person in my circle to get Day One devices, and I have a ton of faith in HTC, but in this instance even though I really need a new Nexus tablet, I may hold out till a Spring refresh just to clear out any issues.
This has potential to be my next tablet!