Take a Moment of Silence for Google's Discontinued Nexus 7 Tablet

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Popular Android device is officially defunct

It took some time before Android tablets hit their stride. In the beginning, they were expensive, as manufacturers tried to compete with Apple's iPad on price, which negated one of the primary benefits of Android -- it's an open source platform and products should be cheaper than their proprietary counterparts. It took Amazon's Kindle Fire (now just Fire) line to drive the point home, though it was Google's Nexus 7 that finally got things right. Fast forward to today and Google's Nexus 7 is sadly discontinued.
There's no official announcement, but if you head over to Google's Nexus 7 product page, you'll see a message in red that reads, "The Nexus 7 is no longer available for purchase." That's it -- no farewell message or anything of the sort, just a curt notification that you're too late to the party.
What made the Nexus 7 so awesome was that it found the balance between features and price, while avoiding the third-party bloat that wireless carriers and hardware partners like to shovel onto devices in an attempt to differentiate themselves. The Nexus 7 was simply a fast tablet with a stock Android experience backed by Google, meaning new Android builds would roll out in a timely manner, the latest being Android Lollipop.
The good news is, you can still find Nexus 7 tablets, assuming you're interested in what's now a two-year old device. Amazon has some in stock, and of course there's eBay and Craigslist. Otherwise, you can pick up an updated model from Google, the Nexus 9, which is larger, faster, and more expensive.
Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook


More...