HTC has stopped manufacturing the Nexus 9 tablet that was launched and released in late 2014.
An HTC spokesperson has confirmed that the HTC Nexus 9 is no longer available from the Google Play store. However, the last remaining units can still be purchased from the Taiwanese vendor's official website. Once the stock is sold out, the company will not replenish.
The 32 GB version of the 8.9-inch tablet is also available at some retailers such as Amazon for $375.
The overall demand for tablets has witnessed a decline in the last few quarters. According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, the global tablet market reduced in the final quarter of 2015. About 65.9 million tablet units were shipped during the time, which is a decline of 13.7 percent compared to the same period of 2014.
However, reports suggest that HTC has not discontinued the Nexus 9 because of the lack of demand but because the tablet has reached the end of its product cycle.
The IDC also points out that customers are moving away from stand-alone tablets and prefer datable tablets such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Google Pixel C and more.
"One of the biggest reasons why detachables are growing so fast is because end users are seeing those devices as PC replacements," said Jean Philippe Bouchard, the IDC's research director for Tablets. "We believe Apple sold just over 2 million iPad Pros while Microsoft sold around 1.6 million Surface devices, a majority of which were Surface Pro and not the more affordable Surface 3."
The IDC report also highlights that price is not always an aspect that is considered by many buyers while purchasing a detachable tablet.
The discontinuation of the Nexus 9 also hints that the company is planning to unveil a new Nexus tablet this year. Google launched two Nexus smartphones - Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X - in 2015, which suggests that the company is more inclined to handsets.
Google has not confirmed any plans of launching a new tablet this year. Only time will tell if Google will launch a stand-alone tablet or a detachable one in the near term.
