A new report indicated HTC Corp (TPE:2498) is working on the Nexus 9 tablet with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG). According to the Wall Street Journal, the search giant chose HTC to build the new Nexus product. In fact, HTC already met up with Google at the company’s headquarters.
HTC’s history with tablets
Perhaps the most interesting thing about HTC is the fact it doesn’t offer a tablet computer right now, this makes is very different from Android rivals. The company once dabbled in the tablet market three years ago when Honeycomb ran it’s course. Honeycomb was a special version of Android designed for tablets. HTC Flyer and HTC Jetstream were the two tablets, neither of which sold very well.
A look at Google and Nexus
Google has a well-known tradition of tapping different companies to make the Nexus phone. The search giant tapped Asus to build the first 7.7 inch tablet and the 10-inch version was made by Samsung. Other Nexus phones were built by LG and Samsung. The first Nexus smartphone was actually built by HTC.
There has been numerous rumors HTC would build an Android tablet. Neither HTC or Google commented on the report. The upcoming tablet reportedly will arrive mid-October. It may also pave the way for the upcoming Android operating system. The HTC Nexus 9 may include NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor.
The mobile market is saturated with both smartphones and tablet computers, however the latter seems to be in less demand thanks to the growing interest in phablets. The phablet is a smartphone that is larger than traditional phones. These phones were actually designed to bring the best of both worlds (the smartphone and tablet) into one device. Now that Apple has entered the market with larger iPhones, the entire game could change.
Only time will tell if this report is true and Nexus releases rumored device.
