One less racer on the tablet track.
Google announced last week that it will now abandon tablets permanently, choosing instead to focus on laptops. The company also scrapped the sequel to its 2018 Pixel Slate, saying that the new iteration of the device is no longer being released.
Two tablets smaller than the Pixel Slate had already been announced to be under development, but Google is also scrapping those as well. Employees who had been assigned to work on these tablets have now been transferred to the laptop division.
“For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate,” reads an email from a Google spokesperson. “Chrome OS has grown in popularity across a broad range of form factors and we’ll continue to work with our ecosystem of partners on laptops and tablets.”
The Google Pixel Slate was first announced in October 2018 and released a month later in November 2018. Despite the company’s best efforts though, reviewers found the device more expensive when compared to other tablets and even to the all-around Chromebook. CNET also said that the Pixel Slate was “heavy and had buggy software.”
