There have been reports saying that the two variants of the Google Nexus 7 2016 shall be made in collaboration with HTC or Huawei or both, which means that one could focus on the manufacture of the other while the other shall focus on the development of the other.
The consensus is that HTC may be tasked to manufacture the high-end Marlin while Huawei can be tapped to develop the Sailfish. However, these remain as speculations at this time pending the confirmation from Google.
Critics and fans were actually surprised that Google did not announce the Nexus 7 2016 with the Android 7.0 Nougat on August 22.
Instead of the Google Nexus 7 2016 as the first device to sport the Android 7.0 Nougat, the bragging rights shall belong to the LG V20.
Because of the no-show of the Google Nexus 7 2016 upon the launching of the Nougat last month, there have been wild speculations that the device was not true at all.
However, some fans and critics believe that Google was not just ready yet with its flagship device at that time so it decided to push back to be able to make some more last-minute tweaks and fine-tuning until it fully satisfies itself that it has a great device.