Update – The tablet section of the Android.com site has returned. Maybe it was a mistake but tablets are still in trouble I suspect.
It what is the clearest indicator yet that Android on tablets is dead, Google has removed Tablets from the menu on the official site for the platform. Up until yesterday, if you visited Android.com, you would see an option for Tablets where you could get information on the smattering of tablet devices that are out there for purchase. Now that is gone, with the menu reset to include Phones, Wear, TV, Auto and Enterprise.
While the move isn’t completely shocking, it is more-or-less the official final nail in the coffin for tablet form factors running the platform.
From Google’s perspective, the focus has been for a year now on Chrome OS and getting Android apps to run on that platform. The vast majority of Chromebooks in the market today can indeed run these mobile apps, providing a wealth of apps and games for users while continuing to provide a laptop experience when needed. The Google Pixelbook is a great example of this of course, but the new HP Chromebook X2 is likely a clearer picture of the future of Chromebooks with its detachable keyboard so it becomes a true tablet form factor.
For me personally, my last Android tablet was the Nexus 9. It was an okay experience and apps were generally okay on it too. I never bought a Pixel C, the last tablet from Google, mainly because the writing was already on the wall and rumors at the time pointed to Chromebooks running Android apps. But, that said, there are still a lot of good tablets out there like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, for which owners have effectively been told that this is the end of the road.
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