It’s now been a full year since the Nexus 7 was announced and Google began taking orders via Google Play. While it has served many of us admirably some feel that it has become apparent that with the release of other 7 and 8″ tablets a successor is required for it to maintain the top of the heap of the compact Android tablet pile.
We have reported on various leaks and hints of a new version being available soon but there is still no definite word of a release from either Google or Asus, nor any other tablet manufacturer.
An expected announcement at Google IO in May failed to happen and many were disappointed when no mention of a second generation Nexus 7 tablet materialised. This is not surprising as in the past Google has been fairly effective at keeping leaks to a minimum. Many blogs, websites and fans are trying anything to glean even a small crumb of information about the release of this unannounced, yet hotly anticipated theoretical tablet.
One enterprising person took the initiative to contact Asus online help and managed to trick an admission from the Asus Live Chat Support. The way they did it was to ask Asus when the tablet with the model number K009 – an Asus made tablet that previously passed through the FCC with Nexus branding – was going to be released. The short exchange can be seen in the screenshot below.
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The sneaky Android fan also managed to obtain some specifications which include a 7inch 1920 x 1280pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, a front and rear camera, and LTE support. Interestingly the support representative did state that these are not confirmed but they seem very specific to me if they aren’t official.
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The confusing thing in this conversation is that the end of Quarter 2 for the US was March 31st, – the US Fiscal year begins and ends in October- while the end of the Taiwanese fiscal 2nd Quarter was yesterday. The information has come from a customer service rep who is not going to know the inner workings of release dates worked out between Asus and Google so just how much credit should be placed on this conversation is debatable. While ‘leaks’ occur all the time in the lead up to a launch, this all seems too good to be true. Has anyone ever seen a support representative so willing to offer so much information, assuming they know anything at all? One thing for certain though is that a new version of the Nexus 7 will eventually pop up. It is coming, it’s just a matter of waiting until Google/Asus are ready. Perhaps, both companies are ensuring stock levels are high to avoid a repeat of the issues that surrounded the launch of the Nexus 7 last year.
I for one will be definitely purchasing this tablet. Will you?
