While Android tablets have been around for 2 years now, none has really been able to capture consumer’s interest. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 gets a lot of media coverage but it’s usually for the wrong reasons. The Asus Transformer Prime was an anticipated device but it was priced too high to generate much interest outside of early adopters. Really, while people are buying Android tablets, it often feels like the platform has no momentum. It feels like the only reason a regular person would buy an Android tablet is because it’s cheaper than an iPad.

It’s quite different from the phone side where Samsung’s Galaxy line has become a poster child for Android’s success.

What Android really needs is tablet to help it stand out. Android needs a hero device that’s cheap, and has wide appeal, to help give the Android tablet ecosystem a much needed, kick-in-the-pants.

The most interesting thing about the Nexus 7 is that the 8GB model is $199 (the 16GB model is $259 CAN) which includes a $25 credit to the Google Play store. While $199 tablets are nothing new (Blackberry Playbook, Kindle Fire, etc) what makes the Nexus 7 special is its hardware. It’s a substantial step-up. Not only does it ship with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, but it also has a higher resolution 7” 1280x800 IPS display, 1GB of RAM, 4325mAh battery and either 8 or 16GB of storage. Aside from the lack of a rear facing camera, missing microSDHC slot, and maybe an IR blaster, on paper, the Nexus 7 doesn’t make any hardware compromises. ...