The Most Convincing Evidence Yet That Google's New Nexus Tablet Is Coming, And Soon
According to a legal filing from chipmaker Nvidia, a Nexus 9 tablet made by HTC is scheduled to debut in the third quarter of 2014.
A sentence in the document, which is part of the company's legal battle with rival chipmaker Qualcomm, also indicates that the tablet will be powered by Nvidia's recently announced K1 processor.
The mention of an HTC Nexus 9 tablet has since been removed from the paperwork, but a few tech media outlets such as Engadget and Droid-Life captured a screenshot of the original text. The sentence was initially spotted by website The Bright Side Of News, and here's what it said:
For the past few months, rumors have suggested that HTC is collaborating with Google to build its new Nexus tablet. The device is expected to feature a 9-inch screen with a sharp 2560 x 1600 resolution and may come with an all-aluminum design just like HTC's line of One smartphones.
It's safe to assume it will ship with Google's newest version of Android, codenamed "L," when it launches. Based on the document, it also seems likely that HTC and Google's tablet will run on Nvidia's K1 chip, which is said to bring PC quality performance to portable gadgets like tablets and Chromebooks.
We didn't hear anything about new Nexus hardware at Google's I/O developers conference in June, but it's possible that the company is reserving those announcements for the fall. Last year, Google quietly unveiled its Nexus 5 smartphone and Android 4.4 KitKat on Halloween, so it's possible that we'll see a similar launch this year.