Google says the Nexus 9 isn't here to do battle with the iPad Air 2
Alberto Villarreal, head of the Nexus 9's industrial design, spoke with Engadget recently, and revealed that Google's newest tablet isn't planned as a direct iPad Air 2 competitor. In fact, he made it sound as if the company was barely concerned with Apple's slate, and, even though that's probably somewhat untrue, it's not a hard concept to imagine. According to Mr. Villarreal, the Nexus 9 does not seek to battle anyone, but instead aims to inspire other manufacturers to bring better and better Android-bearing slates to the market.
Google's Nexus devices have always served two functions – to bring a Google-branded flagship that runs vanilla Android and gets the newest updates the fastest (thus - to be perfect reference devices), and to show OEMs what kind of quality one can achieve, without creating a terribly overpriced device.
Well, Google's strategy may have been tweaked a bit, and skewed off of its original path, as with the Nexus 6 we no longer see an affordable flagship device, but one that is similarly priced to other premium smartphones on the market. The Nexus 9, however, is still more of a bargain than some other tablets – the lowest tier (32 GB, no cellular) is priced at $399, equal to the pricing of the now 1-year old iPad Air – and Google's HTC-made slate is quite the powerhouse, with its Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset and Kepler graphics.
The Google Nexus 9 is currently available for pre-order via various retailers and Google Play. It should be physically hitting the shelves on November 3rd, with the cellular version coming a bit later – November 12th. Amazon UK has announced the tablet will reach its customers mid-December, but it is yet unknown, whether this applies to all UK retailers (Google Play, too), or just Amazon.
source: Engadget
Google's Nexus devices have always served two functions – to bring a Google-branded flagship that runs vanilla Android and gets the newest updates the fastest (thus - to be perfect reference devices), and to show OEMs what kind of quality one can achieve, without creating a terribly overpriced device.
Villarreal also spoke of why Google chose HTC as a partner for the newest Nexus tab. Here's what he had to say:
We saw the One and really liked how their designs were very simple, focused on usability and removed things that didn't need to be there. [...] They have nice craft and precision details and materials.
The Google Nexus 9 is currently available for pre-order via various retailers and Google Play. It should be physically hitting the shelves on November 3rd, with the cellular version coming a bit later – November 12th. Amazon UK has announced the tablet will reach its customers mid-December, but it is yet unknown, whether this applies to all UK retailers (Google Play, too), or just Amazon.
source: Engadget
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