Google Nexus 7 to land in retail for $319

Google’s own tablet may not have the the physical size to directly take on its Apple iPad nemesis, but it will definitely be more than just an online purchase, with Australian retailers grabbing the tablet too.

Announced last week, the Google Nexus 7 is Google’s own attempt at an Android tablet, taking advantage of a partnership with Asus and including the very latest and just announced version of Android – Jelly Bean – on the tablet.

With a 7 inch HD screen and an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, the tablet is actually on par spec-wise with many of the offerings we’re currently seeing, but Google plans to compete heavily on price.

Last week’s announcement came with a $249 price tag for the 8GB model, while a 16GB model fetches $299, with shipping added on afterwards.

This week, Google and Asus have announced that it will also be hitting retail stores across the country, with the likes of Officeworks, Dick Smith, JB HiFi, Harvey Norman, EB Games, Bing Lee, The Good Guys, Retravision, and other stores – including authorised Asus retailers and computer stores – grabbing the 16GB model for $319 RRP.

Late July is the expected time frame for the first official Google tablet, which should bring heavy competition to Amazon’s Kindle platform, both in the eReader market and for the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s own 7 inch Android tablet that has yet to be released in Australia.