Google abandons its pixel tablet dream: Report
San Francisco: Confirming that there would be no upcoming sequel to its Pixel Slate, Google has seemingly abandoned its tablet-making efforts and focus mainly on making laptops.
“Hey, it’s true. Google’s hardware team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward, but make no mistake, Android and Chrome OS teams are 100 percent committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market (consumer, enterprise, edu),” Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President of Devices and Services tweeted on Thursday.
However, the company would still support the existing Pixel Slate devices.
“We will fully support Pixel Slate for the long-term as well,” Osterloh added.
The Google Pixel Slate was first announced in October 2018 and was later launched last November at a starting price of $599.
Even though it had a nice display and support for a mouse and trackpad, CNET found it to be pricey in comparison to the Chromebook and to tablet competition. It was also heavy and had buggy software, the report said.
According to a Computerworld report, affected employees from the tablet division in Google have been reassigned from developing tablets to laptops.
For Google-made hardware, the company is now focusing its roadmap on the Pixelbook family of laptops moving forward.
“For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops,” CNET quoted a company spokesperson as saying.
