The report also quotes Jack Tong, HTC’s president for North Asia, who spoke at the Nexus 9’s launch in Taipei. He discussed the limited profitability in 7-inch tablets, particularly when the retail price is less than $170, and saw “more room for growth and product differentiation in the high-end and mid-tier tablet segments.”
This does suggest HTC won’t try to take on the Amazon Kindle Fire, or repeat the success of the Nexus 7; but instead follow the trend into which the Nexus 9 has tapped. Tablets with screens measuring somewhere in-between 8 and 10-inches have increased in popularity recently. Should HTC make a powerful, 9-inch tablet next year, it would compete with the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, the iPad Mini 3, and of course, the Nexus 9.
Returning to the conference call, Chang also said the company would “consider other co-branding opportunities,” in the future. HTC has partnered with Google before the Nexus 9, and it has released smartphones with Beats Audio branding, a deal which ended after it sold its stake in the firm.
Prior to the announcement of the Nexus 9, rumors regularly appeared about HTC’s return to producing tablet devices. At the end of 2013, the firm was linked with Windows-based hardware, and CEO Peter Chou talked about a “nice and disruptive” device around the same time, which may or may not have been the Nexus 9.
Editors' Recommendations
- I put two cheap Android tablets head-to-head. This is the one to buy
- 5 tablets you should buy instead of the iPad Air (2024)
- This cool new Android tablet is hiding a very big secret
- Google has no idea what it’s doing with the Pixel Tablet
- Google just launched a new Pixel Tablet … kind of
