From a software perspective, Google has been doing very well. Their Android platform for smartphones is dominant and on tablets it’s been making its mark. Unfortunately, the company still doesn’t see a ton of revenue from it with over 96% of their money coming from online advertising. Hardware is where they want to be and the original Nexus 7 tablet launched last June did pretty well with an estimated 4.7 million sold. This year, they hope to far exceed this with unconfirmed reports of the second generation Nexus 7 tablet launching in July. Google is aiming to ship as many as eight million of the Asustek-made…

Google has never been the best when it comes to plugging their own products. It has resulted in poor launches of other items such as all of their first phone attempts, their Chromebooks, and just about everything else they’ve pushed, even the big Google+ blast that they’ve been hammering for the last several months. Their push for the Nexus 7 tablet has been stronger and the advertising shows promise. In an almost Applesque way, the latest video they’ve released introducing their tablet hardware attempts to touch people where they are most likely approachable – the family. Instead of going into…

Google has had limited success with their Nexus-branded smartphones to date but that isn’t stopping them from moving the brand over to the tablet market. Now, rumors are circulating that they’re going to throw their name in the hat with prices starting at $149, joining the trend of reduced tablet pricing that even Apple is doing (even though only with their older iPad 2 as the New iPad rolls out). Amazon’s success with the properly-priced Kindle Fire over the holiday season and beyond has sparked more tablet makers to shoot for affordable rather than feature-rich. Ironically, this trend really…

The world’s third-largest mobile phone maker has seen some recent success, posting their first profit in mobile for the first time in seven quarters. Now, they’re hoping to bank on the momentum by trying to partner with Google as a future provider of the Nexus phone. There’s a certain prestige that comes with having the Nexus name. Google’s own version of a handset that features Android has not had a ton of success with other phone makers, but it’s good for the companies that carry the name because it means the latest and greatest in Android technology. “We’re heavily in discussions,” Ramchan Woo,…