The iPad juggernaut continues to gallop, likely forcing Google to do away with the Nexus 10 2 release date plans in favour of the more compact and alluring Nexus 8.

From Taiwan, DigiTimes reported that the upcoming Nexus device is not a 10-inch slate. Instead, Google is looking at the possibility of issuing an 8-inch stock Android tablet that will take on the name Nexus 8.

The strongest candidate to manufacture this mid-size Nexus is Nexus 7 assembler Asus, also from Taiwan. Per DigiTimes, Asus is within Google's immediate radar for the Nexus 2014 project because it "has already established a close relationship with Google and has advantages in product design and component purchasing."

It appears too that Google is in a big hurry, which contributes to Asus winning the coveted contract. If the reports pans out, the Nexus 8 release date could be real soon or March 2014 at the earliest.

Now it goes without this saying that the planned Nexus 8 is Google's fresh attempt to upend Apple's iPad, which according to CNET remains as the bestselling tablet as of the end of December 2013.

Pointing to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) as source of its data, CNET reported that the iPad Air and iPad Mini overwhelmed the competition during the 2013 holiday quarter. Note that the data is focused on the U.S. market.

Somehow, the same DigiTimes report confirmed the iPad dominance. The publication claimed that Google is retiring the Nexus 7 for its poor commercial showing. And per the CIRP data anew, the same goes for the first Nexus 10.

CIRP indicated that a big chunk of American tablet buyers last year were drawn to the radically-revised and slimmed down iPad Air, practically overlooking the competition like that of the Galaxy Tab series from Samsung and Nexus 10.

Hence, it can be assumed that in coming up with the Nexus 8, Google is rechanneling its energy to slug it out with Apple in the compact the tablet market. The data from CIRP suggests that the Nexus maker may have a fighting chance.

As the iPad Air dominated 41 per cent of all iPad sales in the United States for Q4 2013, the Retina-toting iPad Mini only managed to lure 16 per cent of iPad shoppers in America. That should give enough elbow room for Google to jostle with the miniscule iPad market pie.

But the question is: Will the Nexus 8 bear the sufficient come-ons to merit attention from fiercely loyal Apple fans?

DigiTimes said the Nexus 8 is no pushover at all as it will be powered by the Bay Trail-T CPU platform from Intel. And if reports prove true that the arrival is right around second quarter of 2014, then the device will run on KitKat 4.4.2 (or later) in its purest form, of course.

The Nexus 8 release date, according to CNET, is more likely to happen on May 2014 with Google using its annual I/O Developers Conference as launch vehicle for the stock Android device.