That the HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet has been taken off from the Google Store and no one is making a big deal out of it probably underlines the weak argument for Android-powered tablets. The Nexus 9 was on discount programs and “hot deals” for a couple of months now, but it seems that finally Google is clearing their shelves of the tablet.
The Nexus 9 is not a particularly bad tablet – with its gorgeous 8.9-inch 2048×1536 (QXGA) display powered by a seriously competent NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and a 192-core Kepler GPU, plus 2GB RAM. I mean, what’s not to love? But the fact is, the tablet ecosystem in Android as a whole has not been full of excitement lately. Yes, Android tablets can be useful from time to time, but it lacks the growing library of tablet-exclusive apps (like for the iPad in iOS). That said, there does not seem to be any commercial demand for Android tablets.
We are hoping that things will change for the better in Android N, where the potential for multi-window usage is coming natively with the OS. We’re hoping app developers can use that to their imagination and put the bigger real estate on Android tablets to good use.
Regardless of that, the Nexus 9 is gone from the Google Store – probably for good. They might be clearing the shelves for something newer, but if the tablet ecosystem does not improve, there might not be a string argument anyways for an Android tablet. The Pixel C is all you get now from the Google Store, although you still can check Amazon for a Nexus 9 if you still want that.
I know in me and my wife’s case we are using our Nexus 6 as a tablet so its not that we don’t like Android. Google, as always, does a half ass job of following through and promoting or providing the environment where others can develop on their products so everything just falls to sleep. The Nexus 9 was a little expensive and the Nexus 7 was awesome but Google, as they are notorious for, let it die. I think its not that there is no market for Android tablets I think Google just really doesn’t care about them selling.
One problem with Android is that many apps are not optimized for tablets like the Nexus 7/9. The phone optimized apps may not look or work as well on tablets.
Show me one application.
This is a 2010 apple talking point. I’ve only seen two applications in the last 5 years that weren’t just as usable on a tablet. Both minor apps written by someone in their moms basement which had dozens of non problematical equivalents.
Ask cupertino for some new talking points to explain why you should pay $700 for a tablet that cost $150 to make.
I have a 2013 Nexus 7 Tablet running Android 6.0.1 which still works very well, so I never bought a Nexus 9. The Nexus 9 was a huge disappoint plagued by quality problems and missing some features that the Nexus 7 had. The 2013 Nexus 7 turns 3 years old this summer and so it might not get Android N (7.0). It would be nice if a new Nexus 7 tablet came out.
shame really ! I have no problem with the nexus 9, and my wife loves her nexus 7, quite happy with the apps and what we use it for !! so dont know why its a big disappointment !!