Nexus 6 Could Be The Last: Why Is
Google Killing Nexus Brand In Favour Of Silver?
News – Richard Goodwin – 12:21,
30 April 2014.
Google has a new plan of attack for the smartphone space, and it goes by the name of Project Silver
Word on the street suggests Google is planning to kill off its Nexus line of smartphones and replace them with something called “Silver” – Silver is believed to be a new line of high-end Android devices. We’ve heard talk of this in the past, but always just assumed it was referring to Google Play devices.
It wasn’t.
And now the plot has thickened somewhat. According to a report over at The Information, Google wants to better compete with Apple’s iPhone. And to do this it must wrestle more control over the handsets produced by its hardware partners – and this, ladies and gentlemen is where Silver comes in.
“The expensive effort involves dumping the four-year-old Google Nexus phone brand in favor of a new program called Silver,” said the report, “under which manufacturers and wireless carriers
will effectively be paid to produce and sell high-end devices that
closely adhere to Google specifications, according to four people
briefed on the project.”
Under Project Silver guidelines only Google apps
would come preinstalled on handsets. Any other applications – things
like HTC’s BlinkFeed, Samsung’s ChatOn, and any other bloatware – would
not feature aboard the devices. Or, in the event they do come preloaded,
the user can remove them with ease.
All “Silver” smartphones would receive timely, Nexus-style software updates, as well as all the latest features, specs and capabilities; things like water-and-dust-proofing, voice recognition and the like.
And while this might not sound all that different from what Google currently does with its Nexus and Google Play Edition lines of smartphones, there is one BIG change: Google is looking to pour A LOT of money into promoting these devices and, unlike Nexus and Google Play Edition handsets, they’ll apparently be available everywhere, not just the US and Google Play – retail stores, networks, Amazon. Everywhere!
“Google will contribute significantly to the financial costs of ad campaigns (up to a potential $1 billion, it claims), and even provide special in-store kiosks that are staffed with Google-trained employees,” the report added.
LG and Motorola are said to already be onboard and could produce the first Silver handsets to market. HTC, Sony and Samsung, on the other hand, are said to be rather dubious about the whole idea, which is understandable when you consider how much they’ve collectively poured into developing custom UXs and software.
The “Big Idea” behind Silver is to popularize pure Android, sort of like what Motorola did with the Moto X and Moto G: decent hardware, great pricing and minimal bloatware. Just Android as Google intended.
Google refused to comment on this story.
It wasn’t.
And now the plot has thickened somewhat. According to a report over at The Information, Google wants to better compete with Apple’s iPhone. And to do this it must wrestle more control over the handsets produced by its hardware partners – and this, ladies and gentlemen is where Silver comes in.
“The expensive effort involves dumping the four-year-old Google Nexus phone brand in favor of a new program called Silver,” said the report, “under which manufacturers and wireless carriers
will effectively be paid to produce and sell high-end devices that
closely adhere to Google specifications, according to four people
briefed on the project.”Under Project Silver guidelines only Google apps
would come preinstalled on handsets. Any other applications – things
like HTC’s BlinkFeed, Samsung’s ChatOn, and any other bloatware – would
not feature aboard the devices. Or, in the event they do come preloaded,
the user can remove them with ease.All “Silver” smartphones would receive timely, Nexus-style software updates, as well as all the latest features, specs and capabilities; things like water-and-dust-proofing, voice recognition and the like.
And while this might not sound all that different from what Google currently does with its Nexus and Google Play Edition lines of smartphones, there is one BIG change: Google is looking to pour A LOT of money into promoting these devices and, unlike Nexus and Google Play Edition handsets, they’ll apparently be available everywhere, not just the US and Google Play – retail stores, networks, Amazon. Everywhere!
“Google will contribute significantly to the financial costs of ad campaigns (up to a potential $1 billion, it claims), and even provide special in-store kiosks that are staffed with Google-trained employees,” the report added.
LG and Motorola are said to already be onboard and could produce the first Silver handsets to market. HTC, Sony and Samsung, on the other hand, are said to be rather dubious about the whole idea, which is understandable when you consider how much they’ve collectively poured into developing custom UXs and software.
The “Big Idea” behind Silver is to popularize pure Android, sort of like what Motorola did with the Moto X and Moto G: decent hardware, great pricing and minimal bloatware. Just Android as Google intended.
Google refused to comment on this story.
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