Google Nexus 9 Tablet To Be Made By HTC – Report

HTC is set to renew its partnership with Google by building the next version of the latter’s Nexus tablets, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, which says the Nexus 9  should arrive before the end of the year.

Engineers at the Taiwanese manufacturer have reportedly flown to Google’s offices in Mountain View, California, on several occasions in recent months to work on the project.

Such a deal would mark the first time HTC and Google have worked together since 2010, when they produced the original Nexus One. HTC has not produced a tablet since the release of the Flyer in 2011, which sold poorly and was pulled after nine months of being on sale.

K1-powered?

The move continues Google’s philosophy of changing the manufacturer of its Nexus tablets, with Asus building its Nexus 7 device and Samsung producing the larger Nexus 10.

The new device could well be the first to be powered by Nvidia’s K1 processor, which the chipmaker says is it’s fastest yet.  A patent lawsuit filed by Nvidia against Qualcomm and Samsung earlier this month mentioned that “the HTC Nexus 9, expected in the third quarter of 2014, is also expected to use the Tegra K1.”

This would put the Nexus 9 far ahead of similarly-sized competitors such as the Kindle Fire HDX and Apple’s iPad Mini, placing it closer in power terms to the Nexus 10. The launch of the Nexus 9 could also come alongside the highly-expected launch of the next version of Google’s Android operating system, announced by the company in June and set to go live later this year.

Despite several recent struggles, recently there have been signs that HTC is close to returning to strength. The company’s most recent financial results showed a welcome return to profits of NT$2.26bn (£44m), up 80 percent from the same quarter in 2013, however revenues from sales of its handsets still disappointed.

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