Google quietly steps out of its tablet business

For some time now, Google has not acknowledged the existence of its tablet lineup. Unlike Apple, who rolls out iPads yearly, the last tablet from Google was the Pixel C which was unveiled in 2015. Now, Google has surprisingly updated their website and have removed the ‘Tablets’ section quietly.

This should come as no surprise for those who have been keeping abreast of what is happening in the tech world as Google have repeatedly shown a lack of interest in tablets in the past few years. This is further evident as the Pixel C did not feature support from Google’s newest OS – Android P. The Pixel C was the last tablet to be built by Google and the fact that it did not get the upgrade means that Google have not been keen on their tablet lineup.

Android P is also not available for Google’s Nexus line up of devices and instead supports just the Pixel range of smartphones.

Previously, the Android page had tabs for Phones, Wear, Tablets, TV, Auto and Enterprise. With the change,the tablet section is nowhere to be found.

When the page was live before its sudden termination, the tablets section had boasted offerings such as the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0. If one tries to access the tablet page now, they will be redirected to the home page of the Android website.

While it should not come as a surprise to most that Google shut down its tablet page, the tablet industry has been dying a slow death since some years. People are not upgrading to newer models as most of them find their already purchased tablets to be capable of handling the tasks they require.

However, we cannot rule out Google from stepping back into the tablet game just yet as they have a very flourishing Chrome OS that could make its way to upcoming tablets. Also, Google might have something up its sleeve if you consider developer versions of the Fuchsia OS — an operating system that's expected to me a culmination of Android and Chrome OS.

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