Google’s Larry Page: We’re Focused On Cheap Android Tablets

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Jared Newman / TIME.com

Google CEO Larry Page has lent some credence to rumors of a cheap, Google-branded Android tablet, saying in an earnings call that the company is focused on the low end of the market.

Page said “we’re very excited about tablets” when asked by an analyst about the company’s tablet strategy. Lower-priced Android tablets have been rather successful, Page said, likely referring to Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, though he didn’t call them out by name.

(MORE: Will Google Race to the Bottom With a $150 Nexus Tablet?)

“[W]e definitely believe that there’s going to be a lot of success at the lower end of the market as well with lower-priced products that will be very significant. And it’s definitely an area we think is important and we’re quite focused on,” Page said, according to Seeking Alpha’s transcript of the earnings call.

Although plenty of Android tablets exist already, Google has not yet made one of its own, in the way that it’s produced several “Nexus” smartphones. But according to a handful of rumors, Google and Asus are working together on a low-price, 7-inch Android tablet, based on the MeMo 370T that Asus showed off in January, priced around $200. Google could launch the tablet in July at the earliest, The Verge reported last week.

With Page dropping hints to investors, the Google tablet can’t be far off. The company’s holding a conference for developers at the end of June, so I’m guessing Google would announce its tablet by then.

(MORE: Apple’s New iPad Should Be Google’s Wake-Up Call)