Staples offering Nexus 7 tablet, shipping mid-July

Staples has become the first retail chain to offer the new Asus-designed Google Nexus 7 tablet.  As is the case with the Google Play Store, customers can only pre-order their device at this point with shipping expected between July 12-17 and arrival no sooner than July 13.  This matches up with initial reports that the 7-inch Android 4.1 tablet would arrive in mid-July.

We’re very excited to see this device in a retail environment as it’s a great way to get in front of customers.  We recently discussed this very topic on last week’s podcast and pretty much everyone expected this would not be the case.  Given the low margin, we fully anticipated this going as Google Play exclusive.

Currently, the 16GB version ($249) appears to be the only model available so it remains to be seen whether the 8GB edition will come to retail.

Respect knuckles to Androinica for the heads up.