Google will begin to market a new high-end tablet to compete directly with Apple's iPad, said Google's chairman Eric Schmidt in an interview with Italian publication Corriere Della Sera.
The news raises a number of questions. First of which is who will build the new tablet. Motorola, which Google is currently in the process of acquiring, just released its Xyboard Android tablet. Will the company use its new pick-up to produce the tablet? Or will it rock with Samsung, the company that currently builds the official Google phone: the Galaxy Nexus.
The second question is: How will Google market the tablet? The first tablet Google worked on was the Motorola Xoom. Google and Motorola worked together on the first tablet to carry the Android Honeycomb OS, but it still failed to capture consumer interest the way Apple's iPad did. Will Google play a large role in the marketing, branding, and advertising of the device?
In the interview, Schmidt also said Google plans to improve upon and better leverage its voice-recognition software in its Android devices. It's safe to assume that will be a main selling point in the marketing of the new tablet.
[via Slash Gear]
