Google's 7-inch Nexus tablet now expected in July

New Delhi: Google's first tablet, unofficially dubbed Nexus tablet, will not hit the market until July at the earliest, according to a report from The Verge, an American technology news website.

The tablet was earlier reported to come in the month of May, but reportedly Google pushed back the planned release so that it could tweak the device, reported the Verge, adding, "the company plans to make some design changes and hopes to lower the price from the current $249."

The tablet, made in partnership with Taiwan's Asustek Computer, is touted to sport a 7-inch screen and an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor. It runs Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, and is Wi-Fi-only.

The device will reportedly be out in July at a price between $199 and $249. It will compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Of late, a report from DigiTimes said that Google and Asustek are working together to doff the silk off their 7-inch co-branded tablet PC as early as May, which will target Amazon's Kindle Fire. But the new report states that the device will not appear until July.

Though rumours concerning Google's Nexus tablet are doing the rounds for quite sometime, but Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, is actually the one who started the firestorm when he was reported telling an Italian publication Corriere Della Sera in December 2011 that his company will market a competitive tablet within the next six months. And since then, speculations surrounding a Google-branded tablet are rife.

Also, Android chief Andy Rubin added fuel to the fire when he said during Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, that the company intends to come up with the consumer tablet this year. "Google wants consumers to see its tablets as part of the broader Android ecosystem. The educated consumer realises it now that they're either picking the Apple ecosystem or the Microsoft ecosystem or the Google ecosystem... we're going to do a better job at making people understand what ecosystem they're buying into," The Verge quoted Rubis as saying during MWC 2012.

Now, all the eyes are on Google. All these speculations will only come to an end with Google's formal announcement.