An HTC tablet running Google ‘s Chrome operating system will be sold by Verizon Wireless in late November, according to an unnamed source cited by the blog Downloadsquad.
The blog’s source specifically said the tablet will appear on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. The blog said the tablet would probably be heavily subsidized by Verizon to compete against the AppleiPad.
HTC and Verizon could not be reached to comment.
The blog also speculated that the HTC tablet would have plenty of popular features, in keeping with HTC’s Nexus One smartphone tradition. Those include a 1280x 720 multitouch dislay for the tablet, 2GB of RAM, and a minimum of 32GB of storage, the blog said.
But the big interest value would be the Chrome OS, since Google has mostly made a splash with Android for smartphones and a number of Android tablets are expected in the coming months from Samsung and others. Samsung is reported to be showing a new Android 2.2 tablet at a consumer electronics show in Berlin early in September.
FierceWireless reported in July that an HTC spokesman had noted widespread interest in tablets, but said HTC would participate if it could find a way to offer “clear value and differentiate ourselves.”
Chrome was introduced as an OS to power netbooks, not tablets, although some analysts have noted Chrome could work in both.