LG arent used to shifting the amount of phones that Samsung and Apple ship so they got caught on the hop….the fact it turned out to be a blinder and was cheap meant it was a hit….cant understand why nobody at Google or LG saw this coming?!
Anyway, imminent replacement or not rest assured it will be cheap….the tech sites are confident that Google has very little interest in trying to turn a profit on the Nexus devices, the idea is to sell at near cost prices and get the Android OS out there loaded with all of Google’s services….that is where Google still makes the bulk of its money.
The exception to this maybe Motorola (which Google now own)….there is a pure Google/Android Motorola phone in development which Google may be interested in making profitable as they actually own the hardware this time….this is the speculation on tech sites but it may end up as simply another Nexus device sold at cost but from a different manufacturer in order to spread the Nexus/Android name around….so far HTC, Samsung, Asus (tablet) and LG have made pure Android devices under the Nexus banner….now simply Motorola’s turn?
Personally i think it is also a demonstration by Google to the hardware companies (Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei, Sony, Motorola etc) that pure Android/Nexus devices are potentially more popular (and therefore profitable) than ‘skinned’ devices….as good as my HTC One-S is i’d much rather it didnt have HTC’s ‘sense UI’ all over it….
….perhaps even a thinly veiled threat to the other handset manufacturers to stop tinkering with the Android OS or they’ll take it off open source and only Motorola will have access to Android?
Interestingly the Huawei Ascend P1 shipped with both stock Android and a skinned version and on booting up the phone you get to choose which you want….perhaps the best option for all concerned?, the hardware companies get to continue making custom skins but keep Google happy by bundling stock Android as an option on the boot menu.
