Google Nexus tablet set for Asus, not Samsung or Motorola
Reports say a Google Nexus tablet will be built by Asus, not previous Nexus builders Samsung or Motorola.
After the success of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Samsung Nexus S partnerships between Google and Samsung, a Google Nexus tablet is on the way and it's being built by... Asus!
That's the word on the street according to Android and Me, quoting a senior source at a US supply chain company. Asus is set to build a 7-inch Nexus tablet based on the Asus Eee Pad MeMo, a slickly designed tablet we first saw early in 2011.
The Nexus name is bestowed upon one phone for each generation of Android, which acts as a showcase for Android in its pure unadulterated form, before manufacturers and networks slap a skin and extra apps all over it. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus was the flagship for version 4.0 of Android, known as Ice Cream Sandwich, while the Nexus S showed off version 2.3, Gingerbread.
The new tablet will show off a new version of Android: perhaps Jelly Bean or Key Lime Pie. Here's our guide to every version of Android so far.
Asus has proved its tablet chops with the excellent Transformer Prime, probably the most impressive tablet innovation since the original iPad, but I must admit I didn't see Asus as a likely candidate for a Nexus tablet.
Having built the last two Nexus phones -- and with a wealth of tablet experience in the Samsung Galaxy Tab range -- Samsung would seem like an obvious candidate to build a Nexus slate.
Asus isn't even the second most obvious choice: what about Motorola? Google recently spent £7.6bn to buy Motorola, which built the only previous Android flagship tablet. The Motorola Xoom didn't bear the Nexus moniker, but was first to show off Android version 3.0, Honeycomb, the only version so far to be specially designed for the larger screen of a tablet.
I for one am very interested in what Asus and Google come up with. In the meantime, press play to see what Asus are capable of with our video review of the Transformer Prime:
What do you think of the prospect of an Asus Nexus tablet? What features would you like to see? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.