• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 12, 2010

Rumors suggest Google will release the Android tablet at its I/O conference next week in San Francisco. Of course this is pure speculation, but there are a few facts.

Verizon Wireless chief executive Lowell McAdam told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday his company is working with Google on a tablet computer. Google wouldn't have picked AT&T to launch the tablet because the carrier supports Apple's iPad. And although Google introduced Nexus One with Sprint, the fact that Verizon offers better network support would entice the company away.

Who could make the tablet? Some say HTC, since the company made the HTC Shift Windows Vista/Windows Mobile device a couple of years ago, which means it has the experience of creating devices with numerous form factors. HTC 's familiarity with the Android operating system makes it the perfect candidate. Google admitted with the introduction of the Nexus One handset and Web portal it would sell other products running Android.

Although advertising has been Google's golden spoon, the company continues to push cloud computing and mobile applications. Some of those applications and platforms will focus in the education market, serving toddlers to university students. William Volk, PlayScreen chief executive officer, told MediaPost at the Southern California Venture Network gathering late Tuesday that his company plans to develop tactile games geared toward the education market. The target market becomes parents who spend million of dollars on tutoring annually. The market also becomes children learning how to read as apps turn interactive with text, audio and video.

Today, PlayScreen develops casual games for iPhone and Android, as well as apps for television, telecom, and gambling casinos, but Volk, who came from Activision and Lightspan, sees a market for educational games as more tablets hit the market at affordable prices.

Volk says free apps with ads in the Android marketplace do much better than those without ads that sell, though it doesn't work the same for the Apple App store. He says "back in the day before app stores," 2007, (I had to chuckle) eCPMs, (effective cost per thousand impressions) brought in $13 per impression, but that's not the case today. So his company is playing around with rich-media ads.

PlayScreen's plan is to release free educational apps for the iPad in about two months to demonstrate the benefits. Apps in other platforms will follow.

Apple, and possibly Google, aren't the only tablet makers. In case you missed it, Archos introduced a tablet last week dubbed the Archos 7 Home Tablet. The company says it's the first "large-screen Android-based tablet." Pre-orders through Amazon will get you a tablet in mid-May for $199.99.