Google has joined forces with US telecoms giant Verizon to introduce its iPad-killing tablet computing device possibly later this year, which will run on the Android operating system.
Internet giant Google has been working on a number of potential computing devices, ranging from a Chrome-based netbook to a tablet device that will run on its Android operating system and powered by an Intel Atom processor.
In recent months, Google Europe boss John Herlihy proclaimed that the desktop as we know it will be irrelevant in about three years.
The inevitable tablet computing device will be unveiled as part of the next big wave of opportunities being targeted by Google and Verizon, according to Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam.
McAdam is understood to have told the Wall Street Journal that his company, which is jointly owned by Vodafone, is working with internet giant Google as part of a deepening relationship between the two companies.
In recent days, it has emerged that while Apple is locked into its contract with AT&T in the US until 2012, Google Android-powered smartphones have already overtaken the iPhone OS in terms of unit shipments to be the second most popular OS in the US.
“We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience,” McAdam is reported as saying.
At present, no manufacturer of the tablet device has been named, nor has a date been set for the device’s release.
By John Kennedy
Photos: Could Google’s Android (above) operating system sound the death knell of Apple’s sudden leadership in the renewed space of tablet computing as demonstrated by the Apple iPad (below), which has so far sold 1m units
