It is highly likely that the Nexus 10 2 release date will not happen on 2013 Black Friday, new reports said. In fact, the 10-inch vanilla Android tab could simply skip this year's holiday season as Google cooks up a better alternative.

One possibility is a hybrid device that will run on Chrome OS, John Freml said in a blog report, adding that 'the backpedal move' could be prompted by the not too stellar commercial performance of the first Nexus 10.

The scenario being painted, of course, is Freml's alone but his argument that Google is having second thoughts on the commercial viability of a second Nexus 10 is valid. The tablet has yet to make a dent on a market segment that the 9.7-inch iPad continues to rule.

While it is true that the compact tablet is also an Apple domain through its iPad Mini, the Nexus 7 at least commands a respectable following. The same goes for the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, both of which are giving the iPhone variants quite a good fight.

"Maybe it makes sense for Google to focus Android where it's most successful (on anything 7-inches and smaller)," Freml wrote in his blog post.

He went on to speculate that the delayed arrival of the Nexus 10 2, which should have been out by this time, is partly a strategic decision by Google. Likely on the tech giant's drawing board is the deployment of Chrome OS on a full-sized tablet, thus replacing the Android flavoured Nexus 10 2012 edition.

The new device, not necessarily a Nexus, could become the first Google hybrid, which works as a laptop when docked with a keyboard and behaves as a stand-alone tablet when separate from the physical keys.

"Or, maybe Google will release a 10-inch tablet only running Chrome OS, but finally give Chrome OS the ability to run Android apps natively, too," Freml said.

Kevin Tofel of Gigaom.com is open to the idea of a Nexus 10 that sits on Chrome OS and runs native Android applications. But he is more inclined to believe that Google would allow seamless interaction between Android and Chrome OS "through services and common application frameworks for cross-platform use."

According to Tofel, Nexus 10 on Chrome OS will surely push Google's long-term thrust of creating 'touchable web' to the realm of reality, providing the needed leg to a goal that was started via the Chromebook Pixel.

The idea that the Nexus 10 2 will miss not only the Black Friday mania but the entire 2013 holiday season as well was nothing new. In the past few weeks, rumours surfaced that the big tablet will be replaced by the Nexus 8, which should give more traction on Google's tablet skirmish with Apple's iPad.

By focusing instead on Nexus 8 and Nexus 7, Google is hoping to step up its ongoing efforts to capture a sizeable slice of the overall tablet market, which to date remains in the firm grip of Apple.

Notwithstanding, Android fans are still on fervent watch for the Nexus 10 release date, which is believed to take place this Black Friday week, expecting a more powerful and sexier KitKat 4.4 tablet that will tough it out with the slimmed down iPad Air.