Google to debut new Android tablet to rival iPad

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has revealed that the company is planning to bring its flagship Android tablet to the market in the next six months to rival Apple’s iPad.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has revealed that the company is planning to bring its flagship Android tablet to the market in the next six months to rival Apple's iPad.

"In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality," Schmidt told an Italian newspaper.

Google has already had a hand in the development of the Motorola Xoom, but like other Android tablets, it suffered disappointing sales in a market dominated by the iPad.

Since then Google has itself become a major hardware manufacturer via its 12.5 billion dollars acquisition Motorola's devices division, which is currently under consideration by competition authorities.

According to The Telegraph, Schmidt paid tribute to Steve Jobs'' role in kickstarting the tablet market, describing the iPad as "amazing".

"Steve Jobs was the Michelangelo of our time. A friend of mine and a unique character, able to combine creativity and visionary genius with an extraordinary engineering ability," the paper quoted him, as saying.

"Steve realised the revolutionary potential of the tablet and created an amazing product like the iPad," he added.

Schmidt said that competition between Android smartphones and the iPhone will be "brutal".

In the smartphone market, Google designs the Nexus range as both a testing ground for new versions of Android and to show off cutting-edge hardware. Samsung manufactures the most recent device, the Galaxy Nexus.