Google has confirmed that it is no longer working on tablets, and has canceled two models that were in development, putting renewed focus on its smartphone and laptop products.
Speaking to Computerworld, the company confirmed it was “currently working to reassign employees who were focused on the abandoned projects onto other areas,” and that “many of them have already shifted over to the laptop side of that same self-made hardware division” following the announcement that the company has scrapped future tablet devices.
Google last released a tablet in 2018 called the Pixel Slate, and it performed well with critics and consumers.
However, it’s likely that Google has struggled to compete with Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab range, both of which dominate market shares and provide better functionality and software than what Google has been able to offer tablet users thus far.
With ChromeOS, many have criticized Google for the way it handles tablet devices, offering a scaled-up Android mobile experience rather than optimizing the content and user interface for the size of the display.
iPad, on the other hand, which this year was handed its own operating system for the first time, iPadOS, takes advantage of the screen real estate, and over the years, many new features have been introduced that are exclusive to the iPad.
The Pixel Slate was Google’s first Pixel-branded tablet to date, on the back of its successful Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones released in 2018.
Whilst the company has struggled to gain market share in the tablet market, it’s now proving to be a genuine competitor in the smartphone world, and its upcoming Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL should position the firm further in that category, whilst its Pixel 3a and 3a XL phones appease budget consumers.
Google has promised that it will support the Pixel Slate until 2024 and that its ChromeOS operating system – used on its tablets and laptops – will continue to be developed for other products.
In laptops and two-in-ones, for example, Google is expected to release new products this year as it tries to appeal to both price-conscious and high-end consumers.
A new Pixelbook product is expected to be released before Q4 2019, for example.
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