HTC isn’t doing so hot despite having one of the best reviewed smartphones of the year in 2013. While the company will try to turn it around in 2014 with a successor, it also may be working with Google on a new Nexus product.

Focus Taiwan reports that HTC has won the bidding war that will see it produce the next high-end Google Nexus tablet. By high-end, we assume they mean the Nexus 10 which Samsung currently produces and has been producing since late 2012.

If the above report is true, this would be big news for both HTC and Google. For HTC, it represents a chance to finally prove itself in the tablet space after its HTC Flyer and HTC Jetstream were both duds. For Google, it’s a chance to finally update its 10-inch tablet with something that can compete with the tablets that were revealed at CES back in January.

Of course, this is merely a report out of a Taiwanese news channel. Its legitimacy can’t be discerned and HTC isn’t saying anything. For all we know, HTC could be only focusing on the M8 for the time being. Despite that, it’s hard to believe that HTC would pass up the chance to make a device for Google’s Nexus line. LG’s mobile business was in a similar state until it started producing Nexus handsets for Google starting with the Nexus 4. With a Nexus tablet under its belt, HTC might finally be a serious contender in the mobile space.

The last we heard of the Nexus 10 was a leak from @evleaks back in October stating that Asus was making it. If this report is legit, something may have happened between then and now which led to HTC making it.

Image via HTC