Google Nexus 7 tablet goes on sale in US

Google Nexus 7 tablet is off to an encouraging start, with major retailers running out of the gadgets as the internet company's first entry in an increasingly crowded market showed up in US stores on Friday. 

GameStop said on Friday it had already run through its first two allocations of the tablet, co-developed by Google and Taiwan's Asustek that starts at $199 and has drawn glowing reviews from major gadget reviewers. 

Sam's Club, the warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart Stores, and Staples listed the device as being out of stock on their websites as of Friday. Office Depot's website continued to offer the device for sale as of the afternoon. 

Google unveiled the 7-inch tablet, which the company hopes will allow it to better compete against Apple and Amazon.com and funnel more people into its trove of online content, at its annual developer conference in San Francisco at the end of June. 

Consumers have been able to pre-order the tablet from Google and several retailers in past weeks, and Google said it began shipping devices to consumers on Friday. 

"We blew through the first two allotments," a GameStop spokesperson said. 

A third allotment of preorders will be available in August. The game retailer declined to share exact number of preorders. 

The Nexus 7 uses Google's Android mobile software, which has become the most prevalent operating system for smartphones globally, but has so far failed to make a big splash in the tablet market. 

By taking a greater role in the tablet arena, Google hopes to ensure that its online services remain front-and-center to consumers, as tablets by Apple and Amazon are increasingly becoming gateways to the Web and Web-based content such as movies and music. 

Google executives have been quoted saying that the company will not generate a profit margin when the Nexus 7 is sold in retail stores. A report by research firm IHS iSuppli on Wednesday estimated that the bill of materials for the $199 version of the device, which features 8GB of flash memory and a high-end Tegra 3 processor by Nvidia, is $152. 

Apple still dominates the market for touch-screen tablet computers with its two-year old iPad. Amazon.com's $199 Kindle Fire tablet is based on open-source Android computer code, but the device features a customized interface that does not use many Google services. 

The Nexus 7 has drawn accolades from reviewers like the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Pundits reckon the $199 Nexus 7 may seriously threaten the same-priced Kindle Fire, especially since Google's offering has a camera and a higher-resolution screen. 

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, speaking to reporters on Thursday at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, said there was "immense demand" for the Nexus 7 in the first week after it was introduced. 

Google’s Nexus tablet to be launch in India in October 2012

Nexus 7, the tablet made by Google in partnership with Asus, will launch in India in October this year. The 7-inch tablet is first Nexus branded tablet and hence runs Google's unmodifiedAndroid operating software. It was announced at Google I/O on June 27.

The model with 8GB internal storage is priced at $199. It will be available in the US and three other countries in the coming weeks. The one with 16GB has been priced at $249.

The Nexus 7 announced by Google is powered by a quad-core 1.3Ghz processor. It has 1GB RAM and a 1.2MP front camera. The device runs on Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android that was also announced at Google I/O.

Many companies, including Samsung and Asus, are selling Android tablets since the beginning of 2011 but they have not made much headway against iPad, which continues to be wildly popular with consumers. Google hopes that with its own tablet, it will be able to entice consumers better. Also, the company believes that the Nexus tablet in the market will prompt app developers to write more tablet-specific apps for Android.

Nexus devices are Google branded products. Unlike a customized users interface that Samsung and HTC put in their Android devices, Nexus devices are powered by 'pure' Android and receive updates as soon as Google pushes them out. This makes these devices particularly attractive to power users, who don't want to wait to get latest software updates.

Even though Nexus products are considered to be Google's own devices, their launch is handled by the hardware partner. This means that Google has little say in whether a Nexus product will get launched in India or not. For example, Galaxy Nexus, which is Google's flagship phone, has not been launched in India by Samsung even though it went on sale in several countries last year.

With Nexus 7, Google is not only attempting to take on the iPad but also aiming for Kindle Fire, a 7-inch tablet made by Amazon. In India, Kindle Fire is not sold officially. But there are other 7-inch tablets that may feel the heat once Google's tablet hits the market here.