Nexus 7: Sales not as high as Google hoped

News Stacy Warden 07:41, Feb 22 2013

Analyst estimates Google's Nexus 7 sales between 4.5. and 4.8 million

While Google has been all tight-lipped about its Nexus 7 sales, manufacturing partner Asus isn't nearly as uptight about it. Leaving out specific Nexus 7 numbers, Asus has maintained its regular process of releasing its overall sales. Those reports eventually inspired mobile industry analyst Benedict Evans to perform a full breakdown.

Using the sales numbers and other manufacturing statistics released by Asus, and comparing them before and and after the Nexus 7's launch, Evans estimates that the total number of Google's Nexus 7 sales falls somewhere between 4.5 million and 4.8 million. Not a shabby number in the least, but still not enough to earn Google any bragging rights. It's not even close to the 10 million iPad mini sales Apple achieved during Q4 2012. Despite countless Android-based tablets flooding the market, Apple still continues to dominate.

That's not to say that Google's Nexus 7 isn't worthy ... it's just not Apple. As a quick refresher, the Nexus 7 runs on a quad-core Tegra 3 processor with 1GB RAM. It sports a 1200 by 800 HD backlit IPS display at 216 pixels per inch (we recently heard that Google is working on a follow up full HD version). Additionally, buyers can choose from 8GB or 16GB of built-in storage; $199 and $249, respectively.

While popularity for the Nexus 7 remains steady, Google will have to seriously up its game if it has any hopes of competing with Apple's smaller tablet. The search giant will have to go above and beyond the possible addition of a slicker screen (something Apple already does exceptionally well). The Cupertino, Calif. company is expected to launch an iPad mini 2 with a retina display sometime this year (recent rumors suggest a Q3 2013 launch).

[DigitalTrends]