Last year, Google’s Nexus 7 emerged as the cream of the 7-inch tablet crop. Now, according to a new report, Google is preparing to release a new version of the Nexus 7 with an improved design and an aggressive price point.

According to a report(Opens in a new window) from Reuters, the new tablet will feature a thinner bezel, and a design shift that will likely prompt immediate comparisons to the iPad mini, whose thin bezel has, up until now, distinguished it from other competing 7-inch tablets. The source also claims that the new Nexus 7 will offer a higher screen resolution and ditch the Nvidia Tegra 3 chip in favor of a component from Qualcomm.  

However, the most important development is its price. Reuters said the next generation of the Nexus 7 could be priced as low as $149. While the Nexus 7 is already considered a good deal at $199, dropping the device’s price by nearly $50 would immediately put more pricing pressure on Apple’s $329 iPad mini, and even the $199 Kindle Fire HD($169.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).

Google’s decision to bump up the quality of the Nexus 7 while lowering its price would appear to follow in the footsteps of Amazon’s strategy of valuing strategic market share over profit margins. In Amazon’s case, the company appears to be singularly focused on bringing as many consumers into its e-commerce ecosystem as possible. But with Google, the end game of destroying its own hardware margins is likely tied to improving its overall ability to capture eyeballs for its vast advertising empire, the company’s primary source of revenue.

The report suggests the new Nexus 7 will debut in July. We’ll likely hear more about Google’s tablet lineup at its developer conference, Google I/O, in May.

For more, check out PCMag’s reviews of the Nexus 7, iPad mini, and the Kindle Fire HD.