The Android tablet market is something of a wasteland. Samsung puts a lot of effort into making really good tablets, Amazon puts a lot of money into making, um, a lot of tablets, and everyone else is an also-ran. Can OnePlus shake up the market for tablets the way it has for Android flagship phones? It might just take a stab at it soon.

Or not. Because the news here is that OnePlus copyrighted the term "OnePlus Pad," the most generic possible name for an Android-powered tablet made by OnePlus. Interestingly, the trademark was filed in the European Union, even though it's being sought by the OnePlus parent company based out of Shenzhen. The application was made in January of this year, spotted by MySmartPlace earlier today.

A listing for a OnePlus Pad could mean two things: one, that the company is preparing a branded Android tablet. Given the date of the filing, it's at least somewhat possible that a device could be ready by the end of the year. Or two, OnePlus is thinking about making a tablet, but is somewhere between almost no commitment to a retail product and a preliminary pre-production stage.

Given OnePlus's recent explosion of new phone models, particularly in the budget market, further expansion into tablets makes a sort of sense. It fits with the abandoning the previous tight focus on flagship phones. The question is, would a prospective OnePlus Tab be a competitor to high-end iPad and Galaxy Tab devices, or something aiming for the part of the market now dominated by the Kindle Fire? We'll have to wait and see. Or not, as the case may be.