Monday, December 8, 2014
Leaks suggest US Galaxy Nexus launch date of November 21 for $299
We’ve known for quite some time now that the Galaxy Nexusis coming to Verizon, but it has been difficult to tie down the exact release date. The most popular rumored launch had been around November 17, but others had suggested the US might not see the device until after Black Friday. Now it appears Verizon might launch the Galaxy Nexus on November 21 for $299 with a two-year contract, thanks to a pair of leaks over the weekend.
The latest date comes from Kellen of Droid-Lifewho posted a list of upcoming product launches for Verizon. The document he shared reveals that the Galaxy Nexus will see a web-only launch on November 21. Verizon might not initially sell the device in stores, but it should be available from big-box retailers, similar to what we saw for the Nexus S launch.
I expect Best Buy will play a role in the Galaxy Nexus launch, and Android Centralposted a leak that shows Costco should be selling the device as well for $289 on contact. We don’t know if that price is for the 16GB or 32GB version of the Galaxy Nexus, but it’s in line with the other high-end LTE devices that Verizon has been selling for $299.
We’re still unsure if the US will see a GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus that would operate on AT&T and T-Mobile, but we’re only 10 days away from the UK launch. Hopefully more details are on the way. How many out there would be willing to switch carriers (to Verizon) in order to be the first wave of people with the Galaxy Nexus?
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Saturday, November 29, 2014
Share your Nexus S launch stories
Today is the big launch of Google’s Nexus Swithat every Best Buy location across the country. It appears that only the hardcore geeks who read tech blogs are aware of this phone, so we have no idea what to expect at Best Buy. Clark and I are standing in line as you read this so we can report on our purchase experiences, but we want hear from anyone else that went out and got the Nexus S.
Was there any line at your store? Did you ask how many units they had for sale? Did you buy any accessories? If you activated a new T-Mobile account, did you have any problems?
If you want you can follow our barely-beta live blog at live.androidandme.com. We probably shouldn’t be showing you the site since it’s not fully ready, but we wanted to work out the bugs before CES next month. Try singing in with your Facebook or Twitter account and leaving a comment. Let us know what you think, so we can continue to improve it and add new features over the coming weeks.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Rumor: Google’s $199 “Nexus tablet” to be made by ASUS, include quad-core Tegra 3
Recently there’s been rumblings that Google will release a 7-inch “ Nexus tablet” in the first half of 2012, but many have doubted that Google would actually enter the hardware business. Several people have rightfully pointed out that Google traditionally partners with an OEM on these “Google Experience Devices”, just like they did with Motorola on the Xoom tablet. Read on for the latest rumor surrounding who might produce Google’s 7-inch tablet.
The Rumor
Google has partnered with ASUS to release a 7-inch tablet that will become a pure Google Experience Device. The tablet will retail for $199, include a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and ship with stock Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Sources
This rumor comes from two different industry sources that I spoke with in person at Mobile World Congress. They have provided reliable information in the past and I find them to be trustworthy. As with most of these rumor reports, the sources wish to remain anonymous.
One Android Insider’s take on the rumor
Consumers want cheap tablets and the $199 Kindle Fire has proven this. Amazon shipped an estimated 5 million units in Q4 of last year and it quickly became the best selling Android tablet.
The Kindle Fire is a great product, but it lacks all of Google’s mobile services including the Android Market. Some would think that Google would be happy with Amazon’s success, but our sources say that Google sees Amazon as a threat in the tablet market. Amazon replaced Google’s ecosystem with their own, so Amazon earns all the long-tail profits from content and services, while Google gets nothing.
There have already been multiple reportsthat Google would release a $199 tablet that features a 7-inch 1280×800 resolution display, enters production in April, and ships around June. The main details that have been absent include the OEM partner and the processor type.
ASUS previously announced their $249 MeMo 370Ttablet at CES, which included a quad-core Tegra 3 processor. The tablet won several best of show awardsand our sources say that Google was so impressed with the device that they approached ASUS to see if they could reduce the bill of materials and reach that magical $199 price point. Barnes & Noble reduced the price of their Nook Tablet from $250 to $199, so why can’t others?
Details about the ASUS MeMo 370T have been scarce, but we believe that product will be very similar to the Google Experience Device that gets released. It sounds likely that ASUS and Google might have reduced the internal storage to bring down the retail price to $199. Potential users would rely on the upcoming Google Driveto store their content online.
Android chief Andy Rubin recently told Nilay Patel of The Vergethat he wants to win the tablet race and Google was planning to do something about it. Rubin said, “2012 is going to be the year that we double down and make sure we’re winning in that space… we’re going to do a better job at making people understand what ecosystem they’re buying into.”
Selling a full featured Android tablet with all of Google’s mobile services and a quad-core Tegra 3 processor for only $199 would certainly turn some heads. As crazy as it sounds, a possible 10-inch version might also be in the works with a target price point of $299.
We are still unsure of the final product name, but Google Play is a possible candidate. A slew of recent domain names have been registered by MarkMonitor, which Google regularly uses to buy up URLs.
Our sources were not able to confirm the target release date, but we speculate that it could be rolled out to Google IO attendees on June 27th.
ASUS has a strong relationship with Google and I’ve been extremely impressed with the Transformer Prime, so I think this 7-inch Google Experience Device could sell very well. If Amazon shipped 5 million units of their $199 tablet in one quarter, then I predict that Google could move over 10 million units in the second-half of 2012.
If all this information turns out to be true, how many of you would spend $199 on a 7-inch tablet with a pure Google experience?
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