Google to launch iPad and Kindle Fire rival tablet

Last month,chairman of Google (and former CEO) Eric Schmidt hinted that a Nexus tablet will be coming within the next six months. He didn’t actually use the word “Nexus”, but there was talk of a tablet produced (at least in part) by Google. Visions of a 10-inch, quad-core, Ice Cream Sandwich-running iPad competitor danced through our heads. If a new report is any indication though, Google may be aiming more for the Kindle Fire than the iPad.

This story has the Google tablet sporting a 7-inch display — same as the Kindle Fire — and either matching or undercutting Amazon’s $200 price. The report cites supply chain leaks, but it also adds that Google Taiwan says it has never heard of such a device.

If the rumor is true, then it may prove to be a smart strategy. Thus far, no rival manufacturers have come close to ousting the iPad by beating it at its own game. The tablet to have the biggest success has been Amazon’s Fire, which wisely beats the iPad on price, rather than trying to outdo it at the 10-inch game. Miserable sales have greeted each Xoom, Galaxy Tab, and Xyboard who has dared to enter the iPad’s domain (the tablets’ frequent $600 on-contract prices aren’t helping either).

There is no word on what company Google would partner with to manufacture the tablet. On Nexus devices, the company has historically collaborated with a hand-picked manufacturer to co-design a “Pure Google” device. Of course now that Google owns Motorola, it has the extra resources to make its first 100% in-house device.

This could, however, all simply be more rumors. When Eric Schmidt says a Google tablet is coming, then you know it’s coming. But we’d file the 7-inch Kindle Fire rival rumor under “possible, but take with loads of salt.”