In an unusual announcement, Google said it is discontinuing the development of tablets under its portfolio in order to shift focus to the laptop line. Rick Osterloh, boss of hardware products at Google, asserted that the hardware team will be focused “on building laptops” going forward. The Mountain View-based company is finally giving up on tablets months after it launched the Pixel Slate as its answer to the iPad Pro last year.
Osterloh reiterated in a tweet that confirms the speculations that Google is pulling the plug on the tablet development. A report earlier this week by ComputerWorld said that Google has stopped working on two tablets that were in early development. But he clarified that the teams behind Android and Chrome OS are “100% committed” to working with the partner companies that are still in the tablet business. This essentially means that Google will continue providing support and necessary resources to the consumer, enterprise, and education tablet partners.
Hey, it’s true…Google’s HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward, but make no mistake, Android & Chrome OS teams are 100% committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market (consumer, enterprise, edu)
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) June 20, 2019
Pixel Slate, which was launched in 2018, will continue to receive support from Google. But, unfortunately, it will not see a successor ever. With the announcement, the expectations that Google would inch closer to wresting some of Apple’s market share in the tablet business go into the deep. But it does not mean Apple will be in a monopolistic state – Samsung continues to launch tablets in personal, enterprise, and education segments while Huawei is targeting professionals with its tablet range.
Google has been polishing Chrome OS ever since it was birthed as an operating system that can offer a head-to-head competition to Apple’s iPad. Chrome OS powers the Chromebooks, which are still pricier than the tablets that offer a similar productivity level, at least for select use cases. Tablet manufacturers go for Android for its ubiquity and universal ease of access. This is also why the education sector is the biggest importer of tablets.
With Google quitting the tablet business, it becomes likely that Chrome OS may make its way to tablets manufactured by OEMs, instead of Android. There are no tentative plans as such by Google but it will make a lot more sense for the company to expand the Chrome OS user base through partners.
