The next Nexus foe of Apple's iPad Mini is not the 7-inch variant, a new report said, adding Google and Asus will instead issue the Nexus 8 with the release date likely to fall in the last week of April 2014.

From Taiwan, DigiTimes reported that Google's follow up to its compact Nexus slate is an 8-inch model that is seen as the better from-factor to challenge the industry leading 7.9-inch iPad Mini.

Citing an unnamed source, DigiTimes explained that Google's sudden switch to the Nexus 8 was prompted by the low sales numbers collected by the 2013 Nexus 7. By the end of December 2013, the device only attracted around three million buys, said the same report.

The new strategy will also allow Google to dodge the perceived growing competition that small tablets like the Nexus 7 currently face from 5-inch or 6-inch smartphones or phablets that continue to flood the market.

"Google has selected 8-inch as the size of the third-generation Nexus 7 to avoid price competition and competition from 5- to 6-inch smartphones," DigiTimes said on its report.

The report, however, did not touch on likes specs and features that Google will deploy with the Nexus 8 though it should be expected that most of the new capabilities will represent huge bump ups from the last model.

Android fans are anticipating no less than the quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip that improves from the Snapdragon S4 Pro that was used in the past year's Nexus 7. But it is likely too that Google will opt for the newer Qualcomm chip Snapdragon 805, which is rumoured to give life to Samsung's Galaxy S5 that will debut in late February.

The graphic engine should be Adreno 330 or higher, which will fire up the Nexus 8's LED-backlit IPS LCD display panel. The screen resolution is expected to overwhelm the Nexus 7 2's 1920 x 1200 with pixel density of 323ppi and the iPad Mini 2's 2048 x 1536 with 324ppi.

The best bet would be anywhere near a 2K resolution or 2056 x 1600, which experts is the screen standard that would proliferate this year.

For sure, the upcoming Nexus 8 will boast of a vanilla Android flavour and the only question is the specific. If the April 2014 launch time prove right. KitKat could still be the star of the show as Google watchers believe the next major Android iteration will not be out until May or June this year.

Yet should the Internet search giant decide to advance its planned Android release, then Android 4.5 could come out of the box with the Nexus 8. The new version is likely to bear the name Lollipop though some quarters believed Key Lime Pie could be pulled out from the archives.

On its reported April 2014 release date, the Nexus 8 should largely reflect the current price tags of its predecessor, which starts at $230 for the 16GB, Wi-Fi only variant.