When the Nexus 4 hit stores in the UK, buyers managed to deplete the store’s supply nearly instantly. While hard sales figures have not been made available yet, by the looks of it, the Nexus is a success. There are a number of reasons why this phone is so popular.
The Nexus 4 might be new, but it is not the latest and greatest. It is more of a last year’s best technology with a low price tag. The phone lacks features such as 4G LTE, but because 90% of the world is not yet using 4G LTE, it does not really matter.
The specs of the latest Nexus 4 manufactured by LG have slightly improved over the Nexus 3, i.e. the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. This time around, it has a faster processor, larger battery, and includes inductive charging. Otherwise both phones have a 4.7 inch screen with NFC but with no expandable storage. The big difference here is that the Nexus 4 sold nearly as quickly as the latest iPhone where as the Galaxy Nexus didn’t.
Google has learnt some important lessons from their Nexus 7 tablet, i.e. price their gadgets aggressively. Just £240 for the 8GB version in the UK compared to £529 for the iPhone 5 certainly raises eyebrows. Back in America, the phone costs $299, and you do not have to sign-up for a contract, which means that you can use the device however you like.
The latest device by Google is considered to be a so called true world phone, i.e. sold without the shackles of wireless contracts, which is a large innovation in the US market. This is something that many industry experts thought that Apple would do many years ago. If devices such as these are sold in high numbers, the losers are large wireless carries since they are not able to lock any one person to a contract of expensive data and calls. But if the phone flops, it is the manufacturers – Google and LG – who will bear the loss since there is no safety net.