Google Is Done Making Its Own Tablets

JR Raphael, writing for Computerworld:

To be clear, Google hadn’t actually announced any tablet-specific products this year; the last such item that made its way to the market was the Pixel Slate in 2018. But, as I learned today, the company did have two smaller-sized tablets under development — and earlier this week, it decided to drop all work on those devices and make its roadmap revolve entirely around laptops instead.

A couple of clarifying points here: First, none of this has any impact on Pixel phones. Pixel phones and Pixel computers are two different departments, and the roadmap in question is related exclusively to the latter.

Totally unsurprising given the popularity of Google tablets, but also interesting given Apple’s renewed focus on iPad as its own platform. And maybe part of Google’s problem is that these were two entirely different departments?

★ Friday, 21 June 2019