I recently read some articles saying that Google may discontinue their Nexus lineup. As an Android user I see this as a huge mistake. Before the Nexus lineup Android was talked about but not always in a good way. A lot of users that I would talk to would say well the device I have sucks. It’s slow or the interface is confusing. When the Nexus lineup came out everybody had a pure Google phone to go to. I could just tell them well you should probably get the latest Nexus device. The reason why I would say that as I knew that you would get a pure Android with a Nexus device. Here is an article that I was reading Rumor: Google Nexus Branding to End with details on why these rumors are happening. I sure hope that the Nexus lineup doesn’t go away.
The first reason why I love the Nexus lineup as the pricing. The price for the device is usually a couple hundred dollars less than comparable devices. The reason why this can happen as Google doesn’t make much if any profit off of their Nexus series. The intention is to get their devices out at a reasonable price without a contract. This will allow your average person to own a device without breaking the bank.This is one reason why they are talking about ending the brand though. Since Google makes hardly any money off of it they want to get out of the business. I feel that if they would just raise the price maybe one hundred dollars more per device they would still have people buying them. Then at the same time they may not end of loosing money with the series. When you think about the competition with Apple vs Android you really compare the Nexus series not say HTC or Samsung.
The second reason why I love the Nexus lineup as you get pure Google. For example if you buy any HTC device you have to use their HTC sense interface. At least that is the default of course there is way’s to change this but you could void your warranty. Also devices outside the Nexus lineup come with a lot of bloatware. For example most HTC devices come stocked with Facebook and probably Twitter these days. Well what if you don’t use Facebook can you remove the application? Nope you have to leave it there taking up space in your device. With a Nexus device you get only a small amount of Google applications and no additional third party applications. That way your phone can have more space for the applications you want to use. It really allows you to have more freedom with your device. Since you own the device you can do really what you want with it.
The third reason why I love the Nexus device lineup as their updates. You get updates right away when Google release them. With other devices you have to wait a lot longer period up to months. For example if you have an HTC phone or Samsung phone you have to wait for them to make their updates. After they make their updates they then send it to the carrier to apply their updates. From there it goes through a series of tests and if any defects are found the process starts again. So you could potentially end up waiting months for the latest updates instead of just getting them straight from Google. So the process can become very frustrating. Also there is the possibility that the carrier no longer apply’s updates to your device even if it has enough hardware for it. So basically you end up paying more for a device that is not flexible or getting updates.
If they chose to discontinue the Nexus lineup I hope they add another lineup similar. Which of course won’t happen for some time after. They wouldn’t discontinue just to add a similar lineup. I think users will be upset that they have to wait for the latest updates. I believe Google was on the right path with the Nexus lineup when it came to competing with other companies like Apple. Apple only manufactures their own devices which I think is a good practice but I believe the Google path of dual manufacturing was even better. This allows people to still have choices but at the same time they can get a pure Google device. I think with Android the more choices for manufacture’s the better. Google shouldn’t give less choices as it could upset their user base when they have no choice to get a pure Google device.