Launched in July this year, Google's Nexus 7, built in collaboration with ASUS, is the company's first 7-inch tablet sold for just $199. Now, rumors indicate that a cheaper Nexus 7 with a thinner and low cost screen will makes its appearance in the first-quarter of next year and could be priced as low as $99.

Taiwanese Web site DigiTime s reported that China-based touch screen maker O-Film Tech will supply glass-film-film (GFF) technology to the new Nexus 7.

"The sources said O-Film reportedly started shipping products for the Nexus 7 in December 2012. GFF technology will help cut production costs for the lower-priced Nexus 7 as well as make it thinner, added the sources," reported DigiTimes.

DigiTimes also reported that Google will be targeting emerging markets with the low cost Nexus 7, and company is setting a shipment of between 500,000-600,000 units on the release date of the tablet.

The Nexus 7 has been extremely popular in the 7-inch tablet market since its launch. The rumors for a cheaper Nexus 7 has been surfacing for a while now and recent reports suggest that Google may launch the cheaper Nexus 7 at the Consumers Electronics Association (CES) 2013 event in January next year.

The Digital Reader recently reported that they found benchmark picture of an unreleased ASUS gadget on the name of ME172V on Picasa. The tablet will be running on Android 4.1.1, not the Android 4.2 as many users would have expected. A 1GHz CPU WonderMedia processor will power the device.

The tablet also features a 400MHz Mali GPU and 1024 × 600 pixels resolution. The device is rumored to have 1GB of RAM, a 1-megapixel front-facing camera, and also a microSD card slot.

If the rumors of the cheaper Nexus 7 are to be believed, then the low-end features affirm why the new and inexpensive Nexus 7 will be available at a cheaper price when compared to the original tablet.

Considering CES 2013 is a couple of weeks away, it won't be long before we find out if the rumors have any grain of truth in them.