SAN FRANCISCO, June 21 — Yesterday, a Google spokesperson revealed that the company has not only decided to nix the development of a second Pixelbook Slate, but that it has also stopped the production of two unreleased tablets.
As first reported by Business Insider and later confirmed by the company’s Senior VP of Hardware division Rick Osterloh, Google will discontinue producing tablet devices in order to focus on developing the Pixelbook laptop portfolio.
According to an unnamed company spokesperson, the Pixel Slate will not be getting a successor, and the production of two unreleased tablet devices has been halted. Instead of competing with the Apple iPads — whose tablet software has matured for the better, Google dropped out of the race completely.
In response to the Business Insider report, Osterloh stated in a tweet that the hardware team will only work on laptops from this day forward. He also confirmed that the “Android & Chrome OS teams are 100 per cent committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market.”
Hey, it's true...Google's HARDWARE team will be solely focused on building laptops moving forward, but make no mistake, Android & Chrome OS teams are 100% committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market (consumer, enterprise, edu)
— Rick Osterloh (@rosterloh) June 20, 2019
Despite no longer launching new Slate hardware, Google intends to continue supporting the existing device for the long term. Employees working on the tablets have either moved to the brand’s laptop team or joined “confidential projects.” — AFP-Relaxnews
