The Internet is abuzz with the latest rumors surrounding Google’s first-party Android tablet, namely that it won’t be here as soon as many had hoped. Despite rumors that the “Nexus Tablet” could begin production as soon as April and go on sale in May, anonymous sources now claim that the device has been pushed back for a July release. The reasoning? They’re doing some tweaks to the internal hardware – which, by the way, is still a complete unknown – to lower the price. The tablet was already expected to retail for $200 or less to compete with the popular reader-tablets on the market right now.

To be blunt, this should surprise no one. Even if you’re going along with the popular rumor that ASUS has scrapped their ambitious MeMO 370T design to be Google’s hardware partner for the Google tablet, the time frame was always to close to Google I/O that a reveal at the conference seemed like a no-brainer. Google I/O is the company’s software-focused trade show dedicated to the latest in Android, Google TV, Chrome, et cetera, and it’s also a frequent venue for lavish hardware giveaways – which is probably why tickets sold out in half an hour. If Google’s got a new developer tablet in the works, you can bet it’ll show up there, and probably be sent home with attendees.

There’s still very little that can actually be confirmed about the device. ASUS is expected to be the manufacturer, possibly because they caught Google’s eye with the excellent Transformer family of tablets. Ice Cream Sandwich with its dual smartphone-tablet focus is expected to be the operating system – June or July is a little soon for Google to introduce a brand new version of Android, be it 5.0, Jelly Bean or something else. That said, a few tweaks (maybe Android 4.1) are not out of the question. In any case, you’ll want to keep a close eye one Android Community when Google I/O comes around. We’ll be there live to cover it.

[via The Verge]