There will be only one release date involving a vanilla Android device this 2014, which is for the 8.9-inch Google Nexus 8 tablet, leaving the long-awaited Nexus 6 up in the air.

Google's sudden focus shift not only killed the Nexus smartphone but also its 7-inch and 10.1-inch tablet cousins - the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10. Reports are persistent that the devices will not be refreshed this year. Instead they will be retired, which is a thought long-accepted by Nexus 10 fans.

As for the Nexus 6, a new per project by Google, dubbed as Android Silver, is the likely successor of the device. The chatter is recently joined in by popular gadget leaker @evleaks, who chimed in that the next Nexus-like mobile phone from the Internet search giant, but not necessarily branded as Nexus, is not expected until February 2014.

While waiting, the Android world can revel with the impending arrival of the Nexus 8, which has been hinted about back in April this year as the final Nexus push from Google with the object of challenging the tablet industry supremacy of Apple, courtesy of course of the iPad Air and iPad Mini duo.

A report from DigiTimes packaged the device as representing a high-end effort from Google with the collaboration of HTC.

That the HTC One maker is the Nexus 8 builder somehow got a fresh confirmation this week, thanks to a Myce report that claimed the slate development is now underway and perhaps the production too. It is alleged too that Google internally refers to Nexus 8 as 'Flounder'.

Then a recent leak from the Android Open Source Project pointed to a KitKat 4.4.3 changelog that supposedly highlights the existence of the device nicknamed Flounder, which of course is also the Nexus 8.

As Google elects to remain mum on the matter, speculations continue to whirl that the Nexus 8 is the best Nexus ever - beneficiary of a much-improved body-build that should make the device an equal stunner like that of the Air and Mini combined.

And to best equip the Nexus 8, it is assumed that the power beneath its hood will be a 64-bit processing chip though the Myce report appears to entertain the possibility of a 32-bit application processor still coming on-board.

What will be the chip make remains a toss between Qualcomm's Snapdragon, which has been a mainstay in previous Nexus undertakings, and Intel. The latter is rumoured to provide its Moorefield chipset for the next Nexus tab.

Some Android watchers are assuming that if the Nexus 8 will roll out with an Intel chip, the chance is higher for the device to sport 64-bit mobile computing capabilities.

The Nexus 8 release date is highly anticipated to happen in early Q3 2014 or in the immediate weeks following this year's Google I/O Developers Conference on June 24 and 25.