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posted by chromas on Saturday June 02 2018, @10:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the gexit dept.

Google quits selling tablets

Google has quietly crept out of the tablet business, removing the "tablets" heading from its Android page. Perhaps it hoped no one would notice on a Friday and by Monday it would be old news, but Android Police caught them in the act. It was there yesterday, but it's gone today.

[...] Google in particular has struggled to make Android a convincing alternative to iOS in the tablet realm, and with this move has clearly indicated its preference for the Chrome OS side of things, where it has inherited the questionable (but lucrative) legacy of netbooks. They've also been working on broadening Android compatibility with that OS. So it shouldn't come as much surprise that the company is bowing out.

[...] Google's exit doesn't mean Android tablets are done for, of course. They'll still get made, primarily by Samsung, Amazon and a couple of others, and there will probably even be some nice ones. But if Google isn't selling them, it probably isn't prioritizing them as far as features and support.

Also at 9to5Google.

Related: All New Chromebooks to Support Android Apps
The first Chrome OS tablet is here
Apple Expected to Compete Against Chromebooks With Cheaper Education-Focused iPads
ChromeOS Gains the Ability to Run Linux Applications
Ask the Community: In the Market for a Modern Tablet


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  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday June 02 2018, @11:29PM (2 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday June 02 2018, @11:29PM (#687844) Journal

    Yeah, I've experienced the Android functionality vanishing act. One day some function is there, and the next day it is gone, no reason, no explanation, not even a notification. And I waste time hunting for it, thinking I simply misremembered where it was, not believing they'd really treat their customers so shabbily. It' s a real a**hole thing to do. Hello, Google? Don't be Evil?

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  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:12AM (1 child)

    by RS3 (6367) on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:12AM (#687887)

    I'm quite versed in computers, but fairly new to Android, maybe a year or so. I'm not aware of anything disappearing. Are you referring to apps disappearing? Or maybe they're being automatically updated, and the new version is different? (Everything seems to be that way these days- ugh.) Or maybe the OS itself?

    Maybe it's not happening to me because I don't have a google account? I almost never use the Android as a phone either, but I don't think voice / text connectivity would affect OS or apps...

    BTW, google recently dropped "don't be evil" from their "code of conduct" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil [wikipedia.org], so I guess evil is SOP again.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:41AM

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:41AM (#687934) Journal

      The specific functionality that came and went was the visual voicemail. I have a phone that came with Android 5, and it was upgraded to Android 6. For me, a big reason to upgrade is the addition of visual voicemail starting in Android 6. For about a month, I had visual voicemail, then it vanished like it had never existed. There are supposed to be 4 icons in a bar across the top of the various screens, and for a short while I had them. Then without any notice the reel that represents voicemail vanished, along with its functionality, and ever since, there's only been 3 icons, same as in Android 5.