WSJ: Google Planning To Sell Tablets Straight To Consumers
Here we go again: the rumors of Google branching out into the tablet space have been floating around for what seems like ages now, and the Wall Street Journal has jumped into the fray. They cite the usual handful of unnamed sources, who this time say that Google is planning to open up their own online storeà la Amazon to sell Android tablets.
Not just any Android tablets, mind you — co-branded ones that bear Google's name along with that of the manufacturer. Google does many things (some better than others), but they're definitely not in the consumer hardware production game. Instead, Google is said to be working with hardware experts at Asus and Samsung (and presumably Motorola at some point), and is also considering the possibility of subsidizing the tablet's price to fall in line with devices like Amazon's Kindle Fire.
If these whispers hold true, then Google could be onto something. That theoretical store could already have a flagship if the oft-rumored $199 Nexus Tablet actually materializes, and the package only gets sweeter if it ends up running Jelly Bean, which the WSJ reports will hit in mid-2012. To date, the only Android tablet to give the iPad a run for its money is the Fire, but if Google can get close in price while beating them out on specs, Amazon could be in trouble. The formula may not exactly prove to be an iPad killer, but a strong second place in the tablet race is nothing to sneeze at.
What gets me though is how Google is reportedly thinking of selling these things. Google has toyed with this sort of online retail model before — the Nexus One was sold unsubsidized by Google, even though T-Mobile provided the network for it. By the time Google's next Nexus made the rounds though, the search giant wised up and tapped Best Buy to help put the Nexus S into people's hungry hands. Getting those tablets out into meatspace could do wonders for visibility, and brick and mortar retail certainly has a sense of immediacy about it — there's little delay between seeing something you want and owning it.
Still, the direct-to-consumer approach has its advantages. By cutting out the retail middleman, Google gets to retain that much more control over the situation (not to mention the revenue they don't have to share with stores). The Nexus One seems like a dicey precedent, but people who shied away from it didn't do so because it was a bad phone, they did so because it was $529.99 without a contract. With potentially aggressively priced tablets and a decent payments system in tow, Google should be able to lock up this new revenue stream pretty tightly. That is, of course, if they can keep on top of demand for a cheap, Google-approved tablet.
Original Page: http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/29/wsj-google-planning-to-sell-tablets-straight-to-consumers/
Sent from Feeddler RSS Reader
If you have ever listened to our podcasts, or if you 
This MacBook Touch concept is so dumb that I don't even know where to start ripping it apart. From the hinge's physical feasibility to the ergonomics—which make absolutely zero sense. But what do you think?
It may not make sense for you but this is the computer I've been waiting for.
But if it isn't pressure sensitive then I hate you Apple for almost granting my tech wish. (Edit comment)
Except this prototype does not require to extend your arm at all, since it operates in iPad-like form. I don't really think it is feasible as shown, but it doesn't make any less sense than the iPad first did, and look where that went. (Edit comment)
This but thinner. like MBA thinner. if apple did it, it would sell like hot cakes. touch disabled in laptop mode. turns to an ipad when flipped. (Edit comment)
You are spot on in that the only practical touch screens are hand held. But I think there are enough people out there who would prefer that, that it is the future. I'm unclear on where I stand on this, but it's coming. Since I got a Mac LCII in the early every single broad technological hardware paradigm has been fantastic though.
I am a total apple fanboy but will say that beyond any product, their greatest accomplishment is shrinking the influence of corporate IT managers on computing trends to a size small enough that you can drown it in the bathtub. (Edit comment)
Personally, I have heard all the great hupla about the IPAD, went out and borrowed a friends of mine for like hours.. .. Was totally dissapointed! How can I goto youtube, play a song and then not have it continue to play as I go open up a video game? or a web browser? Seriously? I have to play pandora (which I hate) or spotify - which sucks.. .. I could go on and bring up other things.. but NO SINGLE TASKING MACHINE IS THE FUTURE!
IF apple doesn't fix that, I won't own anything apple except my brilliant, Multi-Tasking Mac Book pro (Edit comment)
I'd buy an iPad if I could run FCP and CS5 on it right now, but I can't which is why I keep waiting. (Edit comment)
I have tried using a non swivel laptop with a touch screen once. Your arm grows tired very, very quickly. (Edit comment)
I don't think this is too shit. The hinge looks a bit odd though.
I think Apple should embrace more of a move that Asus made; take the tablet around, come back and dock it with your keyboard. (Edit comment)
I didn't agree with everything Steve Jobs said but this is one I have agreed with since the first HP touchsmart. (Edit comment)
My hand is about the same height as my 13" screen so the size of his hand could be accurate for a 15" or 17" screen but it still comes off as looking like an enormous screen. (Edit comment)
Further, they are not even the future of what we tend to think of as computers. We will continue to have smart phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, workstations, servers, and supercomputers for the foreseeable future. And each will play a particular roll in our personal and professional lives.
If anything tablets are the future of media mobile media consumption and poking around online reading blogs. That is not to say that they are not very good at poking around online and reading blogs and providing a great number of media sources for consumers. They are great at that, and that market will continue to grow because of it. But that thought that journalists and engineers and scientists and graphics designers and corporations's IT departments are going to suddenly stop doing their work on laptops, desktops, workstations, and servers and do everything with iPads is ridiculous. (Edit comment)
My point is, "the future of computers" is not any one type of computer. It's not a tablet, a desktop or a phone. It's a cloud of always connected devices that will surround your mother and be whatever she needs them to be at the time. (Edit comment)
Also, the reduction of the input paradigm to just one modality, i.e. the finger, greatly reduces the usefulness of the iPad in the creative process. The Galaxy Notes are no accidents, they are simply a reappearance of the utility of the stylus that Apple tried to kill and still does not acknowledge.
Sure, quick and dirty, aka resampling and rearranging creative solutions are quite possible on the iPad, and I see a lot of potential for example, of the iPad paired as a screen input device with a piano keyboard, where you can pull up sequences and whole arrangements effortless on the iPad. But only if you pair it with another input device. In and by itself, with on-screen piano keyboards, it is next to useless for performance. Says I;-) But this specific example, of course, holds also to a lesser extend for a MacBook, but adding multi-modal functionality, where you can click between different windows of arrangement, synthesizer, notation, etc., at least in the older versions of Logic, for example. I haven't used the all-in-one-screen approach of Logic Studio 9 half as much as I used prior version, because I feel it is crowded and distracts my attention from the creative process. Of course, mileage may vary and maybe I am just loath to change, but those are my 2 cents anyway. (Edit comment)
My car is a 2006-2007 bmw and it doesn't have that shyte.
a lot of cars don't, though I agree that it's a growing trend.
"It's a cloud of always connected devices that will surround your mother"
"YOU GET AWAY FROM HER YOU BITCH!!!!"
-Aliens (Edit comment)
Because I think that's almost undeniable. For most tasks, including those I do most often, I find my iPad to be more convenient and enjoyable to use than my MacBook Pro. In fact, I'm writing this on my iPad with a computer one foot away from me.
Further, in the last two years, the iPad has come a LONG way from being the media consumption device it initially appeared to be. I mean, have you used PS Touch on the iPad?! It's FANTASTIC! Obviously, if you're a dedicated professional graphic designer, you're probably going to find it lacking compared to a full-fledged workstation, but remember: we're talking about consumer, rather than pro, use. To that end, even video editing has become a reality, at least insofar as its liable to be used by a typical consumer. And let's not get started on the kind of content that can be created in apps like SketchPro... Even before the iPad, New Yorker covers were being created on the iPhone with apps like that.
Now consider that we're still only TWO YEARS in.
Scientists are going to continue to use big-ass computers to solve the mysteries of the universe, graphic designers will continue to use MacBook Pros (at least for a few years), Corporate IT guys will continue using whatever shitty Dell they're supplied with (I disagree that Journalists couldn't jump right to the iPad right now, though)... But for the average consumer? The future is here. (Edit comment)
As in, someone made a 3D Model of this concept, and through together this concept video to go with it.
That would explain why it doesn't make any sense, because it's not trying to be a real world product or do real world things. (Edit comment)