SYNAPSE CIRCUIT
NEXUS DECLINE?#Google #Nexus #Nexus6 #Nexus9
Goodhour, Synapse Circuit Readers! I hope you had a great weekend. I sure did! I also hope that your tech is functioning as they should!
Have you heard the latest? The Google Nexus concept is in decline. Is it surprising?
THE RIGHT STUFF
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the latest Nexus products - the Motorola designed 6" mega-monolith handset and HTC manufactured 9" tablet - weren't going to please everybody or should that be the Android fanatic? In any event, these 2014 Nexus devices weren't price friendly for the average user.
I have the Nexus 6 and I am very, very happy with it because of the wonderful 6" SuperAMOLED screen, stereo front-facing speakers and the pure Android 5, Lollipop experience. Speaking of vanilla Android, I can't say that I've experienced the malfunctions that some claim to experience and that's why they've gone iPhone. Hahahaha! Yeah, right!
The 6" inch screen - as beautiful as it is - proved to be too much for a lot of people. It looks like 5.5" is the sweet spot for the majority of the smartphone market.
The Nexus 6 was a very radical departure from the Google Nexus budget ethos. And while I can believe that Google were, at one point, trying to keep up with the demand there was a cut off point that we'll get to in a bit...
The HTC manufactured Nexus 9 suffered from a similar too big, too much syndrome that has affected the Nexus 6. You know how I feel about HTC, right? No? Okay, in a nutshell, HTC are very, very capable of producing great designs when it comes to handsets but its handsets fail to deliver an all-round experience. They haven't had much experience with tablets. Google took a huge chance with HTC to deliver a tablet to rival the iPad in terms of build quality. Well, it seems as though HTC just about managed to pull it off in less than flying colours - what with the build quality coming into question.
Why the considerable jump in sizes and costs?
ANDROID WEAR
I reckon that the latest Nexus devices were meant to compliment the Android Wear smartwatch. The idea being that you'll only use the massive Nexus 6 and 9 to consume media and surf the Internet and receive notifications from the smartwatch thus allowing for a longer battery life on the - use when needed - Nexus devices. It makes sense!
I guess not everyone saw it that way. As much as I love tech - I really do - I wasn't going to be first in line for an Android Wear smartwatch due to one main reason: I want one of those things as seen in Sci-Fi movies! The Samsung Gear S had me almost there but I'm still waiting to be convinced.
Anyway, that's the reason why I think Google super-sized the Nexus handset and tablet last year. On that hypothesis I believe that's why there wasn't any choice for the Android purist purists. There should have been a Nexus 5.5" handset abs an 8" tablet; the 8" tablet duty could've gone to proven manufacturers such as Asus, Lenovo and, last but certainly not least, Samsung!
THE WINDOW
Then there's the window of opportunity that is operated by a timer: The Next Best Thing and a slew of Android handsets coming in all different sizes and prices! I guess another aspect that has placed a chill on the Nexus 6 is that it didn't come with a 64-bit chip!
The Motorola Moto G 4G? Is the Moto G truly a replacement for the budget conscious Nexus handset concept? I'm not so sure as the Moto G, as brilliant as it is, isn't the same as “mid-high for the price of a budget handset”. If you look at what's happening now you'll see that there are some serious challenges to the Moto G this year. 13MP appears to be a standard on the latest batch of up and coming budget handsets; it looks like many of them will feature a 64-bit processor too!
If Google are going to continue with the Nexus programme it has its work cut out.
GOOGLE i / O 2015 NEXUS?
There's already a rumour that Google will announce a 7" Nexus tablet. Who knows? Google has a habit of ruthlessly dispensing with products that turn out to lose money. I hope not as I reckon there's milage in the Nexus brand.
I think there is scope for Google to contract a Chinese manufacturer to produce a 64-bit 5.5" handset for under $299! It could be Huawei or it could be Lenovo as they are looking to hit the worldwide market in a big way. The Motorola name could be reserved for the Moto X... Hmm... Or Motorola will have to redefine the budget handset once again.
I'm envisioning the demand for Samsung 64-bit chips reducing the cost of manufacture as they'll no doubt end up in many, many handsets in the not too distant future via Qualcomm contracting Samsung to manufacture its next line of 64-bit processors. Perhaps the next Nexus handset and tablet will feature such chips - that is if the fate of the Nexus 2015 products haven't already been decided.
We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
Thank you for reading Synapse Circuit
See you on the next article...
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