Nexus 5 en Chromecast verkopen goed in het laatste kwartaal van 2013

Er gaan geruchten dat Google binnenkort stopt met Nexus Android producten, maar vandaag heeft het bedrijf tijdens de bekendmaking van de kwartaalcijfers Q4 2013 laten weten dat de Nexus 5 en de Chromecast goed verkocht hebben in die periode. Men was ook blij met de opbrengsten uit apps en andere content in de Play Store. De Chromebooks worden vooral via derde partijen verkocht, en Google maakt er niet zoveel winst op als op de Nexus apparaten.

Oorspronkelijk waren Nexus apparaten bedoeld om ontwikkelaars snel aan de slag te kunnen laten gaan met de laatste software, maar sinds de Nexus 4 prijst Google de producten scherp, hetgeen niet aan de consument voorbij is gegaan.

Motorola, dat Google aan Lenovo heeft verkocht, zo werd gister bekend, maakte 384 miljoen dollar verlies in het laatste kwartaal van het vorige jaar. Hoewel het niet officieel bevestigd is, lijkt het door het succes van de Nexus lijn dat Google niet snel uit de hardware business zal stappen.

Er is niet bekend gemaakt hoeveel apparaten er precies verkocht zijn.

Bron: The Verge

Google kondigt Android 4.4 en Nexus 5 aan

Just in time for Halloween, we have two new treats for Android fans. First, we're excited to unwrap our latest platform release, KitKat, which delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people. And second, we're introducing Nexus 5—a new Nexus phone developed with LG.

The first thing you’ll notice about KitKat is we’ve made the experience much more engaging: the book you're reading, the game you're playing, or the movie you're watching—now all of these take center stage with the new immersive mode, which automatically hides everything except what you really want to see.

Bringing more Google smarts to Android

Behind the polish on the screen is the power under the hood. Take the Phone app, which for most people hasn’t really changed since the days of flip phones. Now, we’re making calling easier than ever, by helping you search across your contacts, nearby places, or even Google Apps accounts (like your company’s directory), directly from within the app. And with the new Hangouts app, all of your SMS and MMS messages are together in the same place, alongside your other conversations and video calls, so you’ll never miss a message no matter how your friends send it. This is just a small taste of KitKat—learn more on our site.

Google has always focused on helping users get immediate access to the information they need, and we want to bring this same convenience and power to users on Android. With the new Nexus 5 launcher, Google smarts are deeply integrated into the phone you carry around with you, so getting to the information you need is simple, easy and fast. Swipe once from the home screen to get Google Now literally at your fingertips. Put Google to work for you by saying “OK, Google” to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song you want to hear. And in the coming weeks, we’re enhancing Now with important new card types that bring you information about contextual topics that interest you such as updates from a favorite website or blog.

Reaching the next 1 billion users

Building a platform that makes mobile phones accessible for everyone has always been at the heart of Android. Until now, some lower-end Android phones couldn't benefit from more recent Android releases due to memory constraints. With KitKat, we've slimmed down Android’s memory footprint by doing things like removing unnecessary background services and reducing the memory consumption of features that you use all the time. We did this not only within Android but across Google services like Chrome and YouTube. RAM (or memory) is one of the most expensive parts of a phone, and now Android can run comfortably on the 512MB of RAM devices that are popular in much of the world, bringing the latest goodies in Android 4.4 within reach for the next billion smartphone users.

Introducing Nexus 5

Along with our sweet naming tradition, we also introduce a new device with each platform release to showcase the latest Android innovations. For KitKat, we partnered with LG to develop Nexus 5 -- the slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made. Its design is simple and refined to showcase the 5” Full HD display. Nexus 5 also keeps you connected at blazing speeds with 4G/LTE and ultra fast wifi. The advanced new lens on Nexus 5 captures more light for brighter night and sharper action shots. And with optical image stabilization, you no longer have to worry about shaky hands and blurry pictures. A new HDR+ mode automatically snaps a rapid burst of photos and combines them to give you the best possible single shot. Learn more on our site.

Nexus 5 is available today, unlocked and without a contract, on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India), starting at $349. Just in the time for the holidays, Nexus 5 will be available soon at the following retailers: Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack.


Android 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

How’s that for a treat?

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps

Afbeelding van mogelijke Nexus 5 opgedoken

De geruchtenmolen van de nieuwe Nexus telefoon draait weer. Er is namelijk een afbeelding opgedoken van wat misschien wel de LG Nexus 5 is.

Een persoon, die claimt voor Google te werken, stuurde de afbeelding naar Android and Me. Google zou meerdere prototypes van verschillende partners bekijken en dit zou het ontwerp zijn van LG, met de project-naam "Megalodon".

 

Dit zouden de specificaties zijn:

• 5.2″ OLED Display with 1920×1080 resolution
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 @ 2.3 GHz
• 3GB LPDDR3 Ram
• 16/32/64GB of internal storage
• 16MP rear camera by OmniVision (4k video recording @30FPS, 1080p video recording @60FPS, Real Time HDR & HDR video recording, optical image stabilization, BSI 2.0)
• 2.1MP front camera (1080p video recording @30FPS)
• 3300 mAh Lithium Polymer battery
• Front positioned stereo speakers
• Qualcomm RF360 (LTE 150 Mbps & HSPA+)
• Integrated DVB-T / ATSC-antenna
• Gesture like controls (navigation, zoom, etc)

Android and Me geeft zelf al aan niet te weten of het om een hoax gaat. Google werkte eerder al samen met LG voor de Nexus 4, al was de launch van dat toestel niet glansrijk, aangezien er veel tekorten waren.