According to a new report filed by the Wall Street Journal, Google will be abandoning the model used for previous Nexus devices and is instead planning an entire lineup of Nexus devices with multiple manufacturers as a result of its currently ongoing acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which was purchased last year and has yet to be completed.
The idea behind the shift in strategy is to ensure that current participants in the OHA, the committee that steers the direction of Android has access to the latest versions of Android, as one of the biggest issues affecting Android device manufacturers at the moment is timely access to the latest versions of Android, which is crucial to providing updates as quickly as possible, with Ice Cream Sandwich being the latest update that has yet to really reach mass adoption due to handset manufacturers and carriers struggling with the transition from Gingerbread to the universal platform that is Android 4.0.
Five devices are planned from multiple manufacturers under the new Nexus umbrella of devices with no concrete details on which manufacturers are involved, and more information is expected to be revealed during Google’s I/O developer conference later this month. As for the release of the new Nexus line, the release is planned for Thanksgiving of this year in order to take advantage of Black Friday and the holiday season, according to sources named by the paper.
The goal of the new initiative is also to sell the devices direct to consumers in multiple regions and preliminary plans cited also call for Google to sell the devices direct to consumers in the same way as it is currently selling the Galaxy Nexus, but the only difference being that more devices will be offered instead of one device from one preferred partner. Google is also expected to announce its first Nexus tablet this Summer.
