SAN FRANCISCO — Google will sell a small tablet computer bearing its brand in a challenge to Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The Nexus 7 is designed specifically for Google Play, the online store that sells movies, music, books, apps and other content — the things Inc. also sells for its tablet computer.
Google’s announcement that it’s putting its brand on a tablet comes a week after Microsoft Corp. said the same thing. Both moves risk alienating Google’s and Microsoft’s hardware partners.
The Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire have screens that measure 7 inches diagonally, smaller than the nearly 10 inches on Apple’s popular iPad. The Nexus 7 will ship in mid-July starting at $199 — the same price as the Kindle Fire.
Separately, Google is making prototypes of its futuristic, Internet-connected glasses available for people to test out.
The company is selling the device, known as Project Glass, for $1,500 to people attending its annual conference in San Francisco for computer programmers. It will ship early next year and won’t be available for sale outside the three-day conference.
