Google is finally dropping its unsuccessful tablet business and will not be releasing any successor to its current Pixel slate. According to Business Insider, the company is giving up on competing with Apple’s uber-popular iPad and will focus more on its Chromebooks.
Ever since its launch, Google’s Pixel slate was a subject of constant ridicule and criticism and rightly so. The tablet came with a hefty price with mediocre specifications (barring the display), worst of all the tablet had extreme lag at a day and age where you can get snappy smartphones and tablets for as low as $150-200. Even one of Google’s biggest supporter MKBHD criticized the Pixel slate for its shortcoming and how it was no way near the competition.
“Chrome OS has grown in popularity across a broad range of form factors, and we’ll continue to work with our ecosystem of partners on laptops and tablets. For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider on Thursday.
Google’s board member Rick Osterloh also officially verified the news on Twitter that Google’s hardware team will no longer work on tablets and will solely focus on building laptops moving forward
Hey, it’s true…Google’s HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward, but make no mistake, Android & Chrome OS teams are 100% committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market (consumer, enterprise, edu)
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) June 20, 2019
Interestingly, Google’s focus with the launch of Pixel Slate was to integrate Chrome OS in its tablets, as previous experiments and launched products prompted Google to abandon the need to launch Android-powered Tablets. However, the experiment of integrating Chrome OS in a tablet form factor badly failed and the company had to abandon the tablet business altogether.
Google will now focus more on its already popular and successful product, Chromebooks.
“For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider.
It seems that the next version of Google Pixel Book is certainly close as the company now plans to focus completely on the Laptop segment. With Google having immense success in the Chromebook market the company should definitely look to introduce an affordable variant of Pixel Book that does not cost $1000.
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