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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 Apparition on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:14AM (1 child)

    by Apparition (6835) on Sunday June 03 2018, @02:14AM (#687889) Journal

    Unfortunately, the iPad and iPad Pro are the only good tablets. I use a tablet to read digital comic books and graphic novels (I purchase and read over a dozen each month), and a few digital magazines. I hate giving money to Apple, but Android tablets are complete junk and reading comic books, graphic novels, and magazines on a tablet is far better than reading them on a computer.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:25AM

    by Marand (1081) on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:25AM (#687931) Journal

    The tablet situation seems pretty dire right now. I'm still using a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2" [wikipedia.org] from early 2014 because the market for tablets with screens larger than 10" is absolutely tiny, especially if you want an active pen like the iPad Pro and the Galaxy Note lines use.

    On the Android side, it looks like the larger-sized tablets are being phased out in favour of 2-in-1 Chromebook devices, especially now that Chrome OS supports running Android applications. Samsung released two Android+Chromebook devices with active pens (one Intel, one ARM) last year, for example. Given that Chrome OS is starting to get real support for Linux programs too, this might actually work out okay for me in the long-term. For now, though, I'll just keep using my aging, no-longer-updated tablet until I no longer can.