Google To Take On Apple iPad In Partnership With HTC?

Google To Take On Apple iPad In Partnership With HTC?

Days after Apple boss Steve Jobs described Google's “Don’t be evil” slogan as “crap”, it has emerged that Google may be planning to launch a competitor to the new Apple iPad. The revelation comes four weeks after Google rolled out the Nexus One smartphone as a competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

Glen Murphy, one of Google's Chrome OS designers, has revealed a video showing a touch tablet PC. The device, which reportedly will be made by HTC, which also makes the new Google Nexus One smartphone, will have an Android application store similar to Apple's, as well as access to YouTube videos and a new eBook service that Google insiders are tipping will be launched shortly.

The video, posted to the Chromium website, the open source home for Google's Chrome web browser and operating system, shows a mock-up of a tablet user interface. It shows how both sides of a single, large screen could be used simultaneously to carry out computing tasks, such as writing emails and searching the web.

Last month a HTC executive, Anthony Petts, the Sales and Marketing Manager of HTC's Australian operations, told SmartHouse that the company had recently suspended the development of a touchscreen tablet PC.

The concept of a Google tablet PC emerged late last year when executives from Google went to HTC with a concept for costing, say sources in Taiwan. Shortly afterwards, HTC mocked up a tablet based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.