Google is expecting to start selling Android tablets directly, sources claimed Thursday night. …

The search firm was reportedly considering subsidizing sales to help compete with the Kindle Fire, insiders said. At $199, Amazon’s design is being sold at a loss and has often been seen as a threat to Google’s concept of Android. By leading Android tablet market share with a custom variant that didn’t include apps for official Google services, it could undermine the official releases and push customers away from Google Play books, music, and videos.

Remember all those articles last year about how Amazon releasing a tablet was a big threat to the iPad?

Watts Martin rightly questions how well a subsidy on these is going to work for Google.

If Google spends $100 to get a Nexus tablet into your hands, they’re going to need to serve you a lot of ads to make that up.

A lot of ads.

Google supposedly makes something between $10 and $20 on each Android phone sold (about as much as Microsoft makes).

OK, wait, wait, you guys… there’s a perfectly logical explanation for how this could work.

What if the tablet just showed ads?