Well, we’ve been assuming for months that if Google is preparing a big reveal for the much-rumored Nexus Tablet, it would be at the company’s yearly developer conference, Google I/O. TechnoBuffalo is claiming information from an anonymous source (the best kind!) that says the tablet will absolutely show up at the conference, and as other rumors have indicated, ASUS will produce the hardware. New software is also rumored, though whether or not it’s Android 5.0 is still in question. Note that this comes just hours after DiGiTimes reported the same thing.
The source goes on to say that it is indeed a 7-inch tablet, lending even more credence to the idea that it’s a copied or reworked version of the $250 MeMO 370T. ASUS’ Tegra 3-powered budget machine has been conspicuously absent since its announcement earlier this year, and NVIDIA recently showed off plans to bring quad-core tablets (with a definite ASUS teaser image) to market at a price of $200.
What’s more interesting at this point is what software it’ll be running. The source was unclear on whether or not the “Nexus Tablet” would be running Jelly Bean, if in fact that is the next version of Android. Google will certainly have some new software to show off at Google I/O, but whether or not it’s ready for prime time is yet to be determined. An incremental update, say Android 4.1 or 4.5, seems more likely.
As always with news from unverified sources, treat this rumor as just that: rumor. We haven’t heard anything about a Nexus Tablet from a source that we’d consider 100% dependable yet. That said, we’re certainly hoping to see something in San Francisco in two months’ time, and hear about Google’s potential plans for expanding the Nexus program to as many as five manufacturers.
I will buy someone 2 tablets on the bet that it will not have Jelly Bean on it. They will announce Jelly Bean but it won’t be on the tablet. It would be incredibly stupid for Google to announce and release a new version only 6 months after it released the is that brought the tablet and phone together.
Ok. What two tablets do you want to buy me?
Why? Jelly Bean could be 4.1, not 5.0.
Why can’t a good update be made on 4.0 to 4.1, like the Gingerbread (2.3) on Froyo (2.2), even if it isn’t a major version update (like v4 to v5)?
I’d been hearing July anyway, so this is fine by me. $199US should still come in under $300NZ, and I want a 7-inch not a 10-inch, so I hope that Goggle can put out the Fire with this one.
Jelly Bean will hit Android market ?
I would not be at all shocked if we see Android5jb full version sooner rather than later.