Eric Schimdt recently confirmed that Google is working on a tablet device and a long standing rumor got validated. Apple has got an early into the tablet-ereader hybrid market with the iPad and others like the HP Slate would follow soon. Given the fierce competition between Apple and Google on the mobile front, its certain that if Google wants to remain relevant in the race, it has to do more than just software. Given the software + hardware gel that Apple sells at a premium, Google can compete only with a tighter control over the hardware and customization. The Android tablets I handled recently were buggy and sluggish (even though they ran the Tegra 2.)
A Chrome OS tablet or an Android tablet with a Chrome browser (possibly with some web apps) will ensure that no one pushed out Google as the default option there. Fueling Google’s insecurity is the Apple iAd platform that poses a big challenge for Google dominated online ad space on mobile. Apple iAd is built into the OS and delivers Ads better than any other for the iPhone platform.
So there are primarily two reasons for Google to built a tablet:
1. It needs to ensure that Google backed OS gets a good product competing with Apple and Microsoft
2. Apple dominates the mobile internet space and likely the iPad would add to the dominance. Apple has its own ad network already and it won’t take time for them to get their own MAPS and a different search engine partner. (Saw the missing Google link on iPhone OS 4?)
Its no secret that the Chrome OS is also optimized to have a tablet interface and we saw the UI previews long back. If Google wants to, it can easily pull off a tablet, but the question is how well can they compete on the content part? Any one buying a tablet that can doubles up as an ereader these days, would want a Kindle, iPad competitor in terms of content. IMO thats a bigger challenge for Google!