Will it be take three for Asus in the upcoming Nexus 7 3 project as the company hinted in a new report that it is indeed a candidate to manufacture Google's next-generation 7-inch tablet, set for a 2014 release date?

From Taiwan, Taipei Times reported that Asus is hinging the bulk of its tablet market growth to Asus. Company CEO Jerry Shen told the local publication that negotiations are ongoing with Google for possible Nexus device manufacturing deals.

It has been rumoured that Asus has been tapped by the search giant to replace Samsung in producing the 2013 model of the Nexus 10. The two companies has yet to confirm anything and the full-sized tablet, said to run on KitKat 4.4, remains missing in action.

However, Mr Shen told the Taipei Times that Asus is looking to increase its 2014 tablet shipment, probably on the stretch of its tablet deals with Google, foremost of which is the 10.1-inch Nexus 10 2013 edition.

The Asus chief also allowed that a third iteration of the Nexus 7 could be part of Asus' 2014 production calendar.

"We are still in talks (about the Nexus 7 orders)," Mr Shen was reported by Taipei Times as saying.

With the declaration, Asus joins the two more likely Nexus 7 3 device makers on Google's short list, which according to Gotta Be Mobile includes LG - which assembled the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 - and HTC - also a previous Nexus contractor via the Nexus One.

Whatever brand name that the third Nexus 7 will carry, Android fans expect the small native Android slate to show off the following features, all of which are to match the exciting capabilities that the Retina iPad Mini 2 has radiated:

High-resolution display screen

Analysts are tickled by the likelihood that the soon-to-release Nexus 10 2 is sporting a screen that will defeat the iPad Air's 2048 x 1536 Retina resolution. The current Nexus 7 is upstaged by the same super-crisp screen rendering of the iPad Mini 2 so it is incumbent upon Google to at least match the already superlative display panel.

Better gaming compatibility

In the early reviews touching on the Retina iPad Mini, experts declared that finally, the compromises forced upon to the users of the first Mini have been eliminated. The processing muscle jumped significantly and thanks to Retina, the Mini 2 automatically joined the leagues of portable devices that serve as serious alternatives to gaming consoles.

The same is possible with the Nexus 7 3 if Google would require the manufacturer to at least copy the hardware specs that were served via the Nexus 5 - headlined by a quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 graphic engine.

Surpassing these specs would be even better plus some Android code rewrites to make the small slate truly close to gamers' delight.

More affordable accessories

Having lots of these compatible Nexus 7 products would make many Android fans very happy - gamers and normal users alike. As always the case, accessories for the small Google tablet are hard to come by whether they be for amusement, protection or productivity.

Hopefully with the Nexus 7 3, Google can convince more third-party providers to flood the market with products that will enhance the tablet's usefulness. One big bonus is these accessories should not break the bank.

Bigger storage space

This year, 8GB devices are exiting the scene and 16GB is becoming the basic standard. By next year, it should be 32GB with 64GB likely to be offered as the maximum built-in memory for mobile devices.

For the Nexus models, however, users would rejoice if they can get a Nexus 7 that has a 128GB of storage space, just like what Apple did with the Retina iPad Mini 2. In light of Google's insistence to keep memory card slots from all Nexus builds, the least that the company can do is to offer wider options of on-board memory configurations.

Keep the price right

From $200 for the first Nexus 7, Google hiked the price of the second generation in all variants but nobody seems to mind. The device remains powerful anyway and the added features were the extra dollars.

Given that the Nexus 7 3 is laced with all the upgrades mentioned above, for sure a slight price jump would be readily acceptable. Perhaps a starting price of $270+ would not raise howls of protest of the Nexus 7 coming out of the box is an eye-candy, powerful and nice tool for super-fast broadband access via Wi-Fi or cellular connection.