Previously, the Nexus has been marketed along the same lines as the iPhone. Google have released one Nexus handset every year or so since 2010, when they released the Nexus One with HTC. Next partnering up with Samsung, Google released the Nexus S in late 2010, and finally the Galaxy Nexus in late 2011. All this is about to change with Google’s new Nexus business plan. The company have just recently put the Galaxy Nexus on sale unlocked for $399 in the US, and have also commented that this is the start of a new initiative.
The new initiative will see Google teaming up with a variety of original equipment manufacturers – like Samsung and HTC – rather than simply one at a time, and releasing up to five Nexus devices at once. This isn’t great news for manufacturers like Samsung who have previously enjoyed releasing what felt like exclusive handsets to the market, because next year any Samsung Nexus releases will likely have HTC or LG Nexus releases to compete with.
However, it’s great news for the consumer. Nexus phones have been popular since their first release, being mentioned in tech news almost as much as the Galaxy S3, and it’s no wonder why. If you’re a fan of Google or Android, chances are you’ve thought about buying a Nexus yourself. They’re ‘pure Google’, in the sense that they’re Android as Android is meant to be. The manufacturer that partners up with Google for each Nexus handset can’t overlay it with Sense or TouchWiz or any other skin, nor will any of the options be tampered with.
That’s why Nexus handsets are great, and more choice can’t be bad, can it? It’ll give the consumer more options in terms of design, price and features, without having to compromise on usability (i.e. by buying a non-Nexus phone). Whether Google will release a range of Nexus handsets to cover the budget market and the mid-range market is yet to be known; it’s perfectly possible that every Nexus handset will be high-end, cutting-edge gadgetry goodness – though whether there’s any point in releasing five high-end handsets that all power exactly the same software is yet to be seen.
Google have also said that the whole stable will be shipping with Android 5.0, Jelly Bean – of which not much is known yet – and they could be in the shops before the year is out. An exciting and radical move by Google, which is likely to give Android an even firmer stronghold on the smartphone market than it has at present. Hopefully, with more Nexus phones floating around the market, other manufacturers will be pressured into removing ‘bloat-ware’ from their handsets before release – else we’ll likely all be buying Nexuses in 2013.
