Earlier this month, Eric Schmidt suggested in an interview with an Italian newspaper that Google was working on its own tablet “of the highest quality”, and that it would launch it in the next six months. That statement by Eric Schmidt could negatively affect Android tablet sales, which are quite low anyways, as consumers would rather wait for a Google branded tablet instead of buying a tablet right now.

Given its acquisition of Motorola, it is highly likely that Google will manufacture the Nexus tablet with Motorola’s help. This will probably further strain the already tenuous relationship between Google and Android device manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, whom Microsoft is trying hard to woo.

According to a report by Digitimes, Google may launch its Google Nexus tablet in the first half of 2012, and that will likely affect sales of all other Android 4.0 tablets, as Google will launch its Nexus tablet with the next version of Android – Android 4.1. It’s only logical that Google will launch its own tablet with an upgraded version of Android. However, its other device partners are likely to cry foul, as Motorola will have a significant head start to sell Nexus tablets with Android 4.1 which will launch much before they have a chance to launch their own Android 4.1 tablets, or upgrade their current tablets with Android 4.1.

It’s quite possible that Google will launch the Nexus tablet at Google I/O 2012, and probably hand it away to all attendees. That’s probably why it revamped the registration process for I/O 2012, to let only actual developers in.