NVIDIA and Asus have been talking about an extremely affordable 7″ (1280×768) Tablet since CES 2012, but recent rumors and benchmark results reportedly from a Google Nexus tablet built by Asus for Google seemed to confirm the presence of NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 chip. But that’s not all. If the rumors are true, the tablet would only cost… $199.
Industry sources have told us that this is indeed true: the 7″ Google Nexus tablet is indeed powered by Tegra 3, but unfortunately, no-one could confirm the pricing for now. This would be a great design-win for NVIDIA, which has made a name for itself with its graphics processors (GPUs), but also with its PC chipsets that captured the industry’s attention in the first Xbox. If it wasn’t for that relentless will to build “whole computing platforms”, Tegra may not have existed at all.
Despite the enormous buzz that the Nexus 7 will generate, the most interesting part of this story is ASUS and NVIDA’s ability to create such a device at such an affordable price, while still making a profit. When it comes out, the Nexus 7 will make the Kindle Fire look like a alarm-clock (and the Nook like a thermostat). In effect, ASUS and NVIDIA may simply have a shot at wiping everyone else out (in the $199 segment).
All rumors point to the upcoming Google IO conference (June 27-29) as the launch pad for the Google Nexus 7 tablet, and if Google follows their tradition, it will be the hardware given to developer at that moment. At that price, there’s an enormous potential to grab serious market share. Tegra 3 tablet? What do you think?