Google's Nexus 7 And The iPad Dedication Effect
When Apple decided to put a tablet into the market, they made it clear that, at least at first, they'd only have one model – this "hero" strategy is now working for Google's Nexus 7 tablet as well. With the iPad being the single most popular tablet device in the world – with no contenders to speak of as far as sales go – you've got to wonder why no company has stuck to their guns with a single product name (with slight variations in each generation's upgrade) like Apple has. Google isn't exactly taking this strategy to heart with the Nexus 7, but the fact that it's popping up in the news so often with headlines like "sold out" attached to it has got us thinking: has Android finally got a hit?
Have a peek at three stories that have popped up on the Android-focused blog, and our sister-site, Android Community over the past couple of days. Each of these news bits has the Nexus 7 as its focus and shows how powerful the device has become, how well-loved by the hacker and developer community as well. Begin with the Nexus 7 as in-dash accessory as whipped up by a modder hoping to boost the excellence of his Dodge Ram. Check the video out right here:
You don't do something so dedicated with a piece of hardware unless you're confident that enough people will be interested and pumped up about you doing it. In this case, you also don't do something this hardcore unless you believe in the device and the company behind it. With a tablet or smartphone, you also have to trust that the hardware manufacturer and software developers behind the device will remain dedicated to it through the known future – Google has instilled that trust in this modder.
Next you'll want to see the most recent "Sold Out" post coming from the Nexus 7 as its listed on the Google Play store. While it turned out this time that Google's system may have simply been rocking the "Coming Soon" sign while it updated its web system, the shipping time has gone from days to weeks to out of stock entirely several times since the tablet first arrived on the market. Google is either terrible about keeping the device in stock, or they're doing it on purpose to make people feel like if they did get it, they're lucky! Either way it's the same result for the end user.
Finally you'll want to peek at the most recent overclock and benchmark results from the developers taking the time to push this tablet to its limits. What these hardcore users are doing is releasing all limits in the tablet added on the software end – or as many that make sense to release – so that the device can rev its engine to the max. At the moment, this tablet has gone to 1.64 GHz on each of its four CPU cores – that's high powered, and it's shown itself to be a massive clobberer of benchmark tests as well.
The dedication we're seeing here to this one tablet is nearly unprecedented, and we're sure Google is patting itself on the back for how well the device has done thus far. Now we've only to wait for the sales numbers to show how great (or not so great?) the device has actually done on the market. On that note – if you're waiting for iPad sales numbers, you'll be waiting for a very, very long time. The only way we can compare these devices and their success in the market is with analysis from 3rd party groups – and I'm sure we'll see those soon too!
For now though, let us know: do you own a Nexus 7? Do you an iPad? Do you own both?