US telco Verizon Wireless confirms it is working with Google on a slate – could the touchscreen tablet be launched here through carrier’s co-parent Vodafone?
Rumours of the Google ‘
gPad’ slate are firming up, with US carrier Verizon Wireless confirming that it’s working with Google on an iPad-style tablet running Android.
“We’re working on
tablets together” Verizon Wireless chief Lowell McAdam told
The Wall Street Journal, stressing that tablets represent “the next big wave of opportunities”.
The partnership between Verizon and Google is similar to the stitch-up between Apple and AT&T, with AT&T having exclusive US rights to the iPhone since its launch in June 2007.
AT&T is also effectively the sole US carrier for the iPad 3G, because while the iPad itself is sold unlocked it only supports the 3G bands and UMTS technology used by AT&T’s national network.
The Google-branded slate could be produced by HTC, which already has close ties to Google through its work on Android smartphones – including building Google’s own Nexus One. HTC is already believed to have several concept designs for Android tablets on the drawing board.
Google has also product mock-up images for a tablet running its browser-centric Chromium open source OS (shown on this page) and detailed the interface as likely to include multiple full-screen windows with a slide-to-switch gesture as well as Web page tabs on the side of the browser screen rather the top in order to maximise viewing space on an HD or WXGA (768 x 1368) display.
Google would be unlikely to anchor its slate solely to the US market, especially if HTC rolls into the device the same multi-band 3G UMTS as it has for Android phones like the Desire – and given Vodafone’s co-ownership of Verizon Wireless, this
could lead to the gPad finding its way into other countries under some form of launch exclusivity with Vodafone.