In an interview with AllThingsD.com, Asus' Jonney Shih said that making the Nexus 7 was like torture for Asus engineers as Google had a lot of demands. Google's Andy Rubin added that Asus is possibly the only partner that could pull of something like that, and pull it off in just four months.
Google reportedly gave Asus only four months to build a "high-end" tablet that could sell for just US $200. In order to pull of such a feat, Asus' team was working at various locations including Sailicon Valley in order to pull of a 24-hour development cycle. Asus' Jonney Shih noted that Google can be bit demanding and that engineers said it was like torture.
Andy Rubin gave a lot of praise to Asus, saying that he doubts that there was any partner that could pull off a project that went from zero to final working product in just four months. The main objective was, of course, to make a device that will compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire, and new TV shows, movies, magazines are just what was missing on Google Play as the final piece of the puzzle.
Rubin also added that the Nexus 7 tablet is pretty much sold at a cost and when it gets sold through the Google Play store, there is no margin, "It just basically gets through".
More here.
