The flagship of Google’s tablet range, the Nexus 7, is off to a roaring start. Already, many major retailers have run out of supply of these gadgets since the tablet released on Friday. This is the Internet Company’s first entry to what is commonly regarded as an oversaturated market. According to GameStop, it had already run out of two batches of the tablet in matter of just a few hours. The tablet, priced at a modest two hundred dollars, is the result of collaboration between Google and the Taiwan-based company, Asustek.
It has already garnered rave reviews from the critics. Sam’s Club, the Wal-Mart owned warehouse chain also ran out of stock in a few hours. Staples had to take the device off their website availability list by Friday night. Office Depot has somehow managed to keep a steady supply going. The 7 inch tablet is Google’s attempt to compete with Amazon and Apple, by creating a funnel for people to enter its trove of online content. Consumers were allowed to pre-order the tablets a week before its release, and Google began shipping the products on Friday.
The Nexus 7 runs on the mobile operating system Google Android. For those unaware, Android now has a dominant market share in the smartphone industry. However, with the presence of iPad and the BlackBerry tablets, Android has yet to make a statement in the tablet industry. The Nexus 7 seems like its best shot. If this experiment succeeds, Google can ensure that its services can remain right at the center of things for the customers. This is imperative to maintain its market share, which is decreasing thanks to Apple and Amazon, which have introduced multimedia accessibility that does not require Google.
Google has also stated that they do not expect to make a huge profit margin by selling this product in retail stores. Reports suggest that the bill of materials for the 199 dollar device comes to 150 dollars alone. This is for the model that has a Tegra 3 processor from Nvidia Corp and 8GB of flash memory. The tablet market is still dominated by Apple; due to the high sales of the iPad 3 with Amazon’s Kindle next in line. Though it does use Android code, the interface does not utilize many Google services. This new tablet should really help Google consolidate its position in the tech world.
