It's been more than 12 months since the first Nexus 10 was issued by Google yet release date of its successor, the Nexus 10 2, seems a remote a possibility until now.

Google has elected to keep its silence as numerous predictions of the tablet's coming out, from late October through Black Friday and Cyber Monday, all missed the mark. So the question now begs: Will there be a real reboot of the full-sized vanilla Android tab?

Many would like to believe that is the case, which explains the high anticipation that envelopes the Nexus 10's second coming. Despite the contradicting indicators, Google would likely go ahead into pushing out the 10-inch slate, which experts regard as the best candidate to challenge the rising sales numbers of Apple's iPad Air.

Here are the five reasons to continue wishing for the Nexus 10 2 this 2013 Christmas:

Google would not allow the iPad Air to go around unchallenged

Some quarters believe a big tablet move from Google is too late. The sales craze attributed to Black Friday and Cyber Monday is all but over and evidently Apple capitalised on Google's omission without pouring out too much effort.

But the holiday season is still upon and perhaps, part of Google's game plan is to own the full season. By unleashing it last killer punch before the year ends, the Nexus maker could be gunning to build up momentum that it hopes to sustain well into the first few weeks of 2014 and collect significant sales numbers for the Nexus 10 2 in the process.

Nexus 8 is next to impossible

This is true especially in the short term. While Google tries very hard to keep a lid on its major product plans and launches, having no clues at all on the supposed Nexus 8 seem out of place. In the previous Nexus builds, regardless of the size and kind, drumbeats were there, giving notice to consumers that they have something solid to watch for. In the case of Nexus 8, save for the slip image, the hints are virtually nil.

If ever the Nexus 8 would materialise, the slate would likely replace the Nexus 7 and its outing should take place by the second half of 2014, which is in line with Google's Nexus upgrade cycle.

Nexus 11 is more likely

In the event that Google decided, at the last minute, to ditch its large-screen, Gotta Be Mobile believes the company is not going compact - it will go bigger, which leads to the distribution of Nexus 11.

This tab, according to GBM, is Google collaborating anew with Samsung and the partnership would produce an Android biggie with a sleek and slim profile, also bearing the following headline specs: an 8-core Exynos CPU, 3GB of RAM and an 11-inch screen in 2K resolution that easily overwhelms the Retina-toting iPad Air.

Early Q1 2014 rollout is counter-productive

As mentioned above, holiday release for the second Nexus 10 edition is more realistic as the anticipation it already generated remains high and hot at the same time. Opting for an early first quarter debut is bad move for Google.

Not only would the slate lost lots of grounds - many tablet shoppers would have brought home iPads, Galaxy Tabs and even LG G Pad by that time - but also the Nexus 10 2 would have to deal with tighter competition, specifically in the small tablet class.

By January, device makers should start the drumbeat on their 8-inch offerings - Galaxy Tab 4 and Galaxy Note 8 2014 build come to mind - essentially stealing the thunder off the big tablets. Worst case scenario: the Nexus 10 is reduced to a wild card entry on a very crowded 2014 tablet line up.

Nexus 10 2 will prove KitKat or Android 4.4 is now better optimised for tablets

More or less, the refreshed Nexus 10 should come out of the box boasting of the following:

- 10.1 inch with 2560 x 1600 Full HD display and 299ppi

- NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core or Qualcomm Snapdragon 800

- Up to 32 GB Storage

- 2GB or 3GB of RAM

- Camera mix of 8MP rear and 2.1MP front

- Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and microUSB

- A massive 9500mAh

But more importantly, the tablet is expected to showcase that Android in the tablet environment has already gone a long way, proving critics wrong and showing that it is all set to battle the vaunted iOS ecosystem supporting the iPad Air.