The buzz surrounding the upcoming Google tablet is escalating. The Internet search engine giant Google and ASUS (the Asian tablet manufacturer) have joined forces to launch a cheaper version of the Android tablet.

A recent Wall Street Journal story, giving insight about the latest Google device, stated that the plan is to sell the tablet to its customers via Google’s own online store just as Amazon and Apple are selling Kindle and iPad.

The primary reason behind marketing directly to the customers is to eliminate the merchants, which will not only help reduce costs but also generate more revenue as there will be no commission paid to the retail stores.

Google is planning to take on Apple and Amazon with its low priced gadget, though its main competition seems to be Amazon Kindle. It was initially stated to be introduced at a low price of $149. This is $50 less than its leading competitor Amazon’s Kindle Fire. 

The tablet was supposed to be launched in May. However, now the launch date has been pushed off till July as the product is still undergoing design enhancements. The latest reports suggest that the tablet will be power-driven by Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and will run Android v4.x Ice Cream Sandwich.

Android has tasted success in the Smartphone arena but its tablets have turned out to be a dull affair as compared to Apple's iPad. The challenge for Google is to make the Android based tablets more striking to users and even more enticing for the developers.

The biggest challenge will be persuading users to buy online as they usually want to test-drive the product before making a purchase.