Google Introduces Nexus 7 Tablet

A week after Microsoft introduced its competition to iPad dubbed Surface, Google on Wednesday showed off its tablet called Nexus 7.

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The device, available in mid July, comes with a 7-inch display screen and will run on a new version of the Android operating system that Google calls Jelly Bean. At $199, it’s less than half what an Apple iPad costs.

Google says the Nexus 7 can play back eight hours of HD video on a single charge, or can handle 10 hours of e-reading or Web surfing.

Nexus 7 was made for Google Play, a marketplace containing movies, TV shows, songs and 600,000 apps and games.

“Hit movies and TV shows are instantly available on Nexus 7 in full HD – there’s no waiting for downloads and syncing, or worrying about storage space,” Google boasted on its website.

On Wednesday, the top shows at Google Play were NBC’s Smash, FX’s Justified and ABC’s Revenge. The top movies were 21 Jump Street and Wrath of the Titans.

Analysts said Wednesday that Nexus 7 is priced to be competitive with Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire.

The market for tablets is huge, and Apple has 68 percent of it, according to IDC. Gartner says that 119 million tablets were sold in 2011, nearly twice as many as were sold the year before.

Also on Wednesday, Google announced Nexus Q, a device akin to Apple TV but for streaming content from Google Play and YouTube to television screens.