Google Axes Its Tablet Lineup, Will Focus On Laptops Instead
Google launched devices under the Pixel branding starting the Pixel C tablet in 2015. The American technology giant has since then expanded the lineup to smartphones, laptops and smart speakers. While the latter has found some success in the market; the company has always found itself struggling with making a perfect tablet. The last device from the company, the Pixel Slate launched last year received abysmal reviews owing to its poor software experience. Now fresh reports claim that Google has completely axed its tablet lineup and will no longer make them in the future. The company will instead focus on laptops starting forward.
About the decision
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
As mentioned above, Google has killed its tablet lineup for the future. This news was corroborated by a senior Google executive on microblogging website Twitter. He claims that the company will be solely focused on making laptops like the Pixelbook, however, the team will be committed to supporting the existing tablets on the market from other OEMs.
The company has also revealed that it has cancelled two tablet products which were in development. The devices were both smaller in size than the Pixel Slate and would have released sometime after this year. Employees of Google who were working on the project have been moved to different areas of the company. The company informed about its decision to its employees on the 19th of June in an internal meeting.
Pixel Slate
Also read: Motorola One Vision: Unboxing And Hands On
While Google has decided it will stop making tablets altogether, it still plans on supporting the Pixel Slate for the long term. This essentially means the device will keep receiving software updates for the foreseeable future. It also signifies the dying popularity of tablet devices that are not the Apple iPad. The category has seen a sharp decline in popularity over the last few years because of the low demand and poor quality software support.
