It took them a long time but finally atleast one nexus device has officially arrived in India. Recently, Nexus 7 (the base 16GB version) was launched in Google Play. In fact, Google has been quite active recently with launching books, movies and devices in Google Play. This is exciting stuff and shows a good turn from Google especially after being ambivalent for so long, all with Motorola shutting down its ventures and no Nexus in India.
Finally though, Google seems to acknowledge that it has a huge customer base in our country and with Firefox and Ubuntu showing interest it should look at us with a bit more affection. Even Apple has increased its marketing in India by leaps and bounds. Although, Apple seems to be a bit desperate in recent times.
With the launch of these two tablets a person has all the Nexus choices in the 7” range. This is good as not everybody can work with just WiFi and many people need more space.
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” class=”note” width=”600″ ]The funny thing is that these two tablets will not be launched in Google Play like the first one. These will be sold be Asus through its retail channels. It is a bit strange as there seems to be no reason as to why Google cannot sell the other 2 variants. [/box]
Even after thinking long and hard I could not come up with a reason as to why Google would not sell these 2 variants on their own Google Play store.
The Nexus 7, 32 GB WiFi only tablet is priced at Rs. 18,999 while the 3G one is priced at Rs. 21,999.
This brings it in direct competition with Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and slightly cheaper than iPad mini.
The specifications of Nexus 7 are quite high end with 7-inch IPS screen with Corning Gorilla Glass. This tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM and runs on Android 4.1, upgradable to Android 4.2.
The downside is that it doesn’t have any rear camera, just a front one with 1.2 MP. Still, it is one of the best tablets out there and with a good price as well.
While this is good news in a way, I have a different thought in mind. With the news of a new Nexus 7 in the wild, is this an attempt by ASUS to clear out the old inventory. Maybe I am being paranoid here but then the question is when will the upcoming version of Nexus 7 be launched in India. Right now, it is supposed to be announced in July. If it is not launched in the same year then what is the use as most gadgets have a shelf life of less than one year these days.
Another question is when and if Nexus 4 will come to India or even if it doesn’t, will its future iterations see our shores?
If you have answers, please do let us know in comments!
