Google (GOOG) unveiled its first tablet device and a slew of other products Wednesday as the Internet search giant aspires to become a consumer electronics firm.
Google’s 7-inch $199 Nexus 7 will challenge Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle Fire, which is the same size and price. The market leader, Apple’s (AAPL) iPad, starts at $399 — the latest version begins at $499 — but has a 9.7-inch display.
“We’ve seen an incredible market, where everyone has an iPad,” said Martin Pyykkonen, analyst with Wedge Partners. “If something else is going to break that trend, it’s going to be a lower-cost tablet.”
Hugo Barra, Director of Google Product Management, holds up the new Google Nexus7 tablet at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Wednesday.
The Nexus 7 will run the latest version of Google’s mobile soft ware. Android 4.1, or “Jelly Bean,” also was revealed Wednesday at the company’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco.
Google also unveiled the $299 Nexus Q media hub, which will connect multiple mobile devices to Google users’ media stored in the cloud by streaming it on TVs.