Google says 'there's no margin' on Nexus 7
Google has said it won't be making money from the Nexus 7 unit itself, and that it took four months to build
If you were wondering how Google made the Nexus 7 so cheap, it's partly to do with selling the device at cost.
Speaking to All Things D, Asus chairman Jonney Shih and Android head honcho Andy Rubin said of creating such a cheap device: 'Our engineers told me it is like torture. They [Google] ask a lot.'
Even more astonishing, but also perhaps slightly worrying, was the time it took to build the Nexus 7, which was codenamed 'Project A-Team' at Asus. 'We went from zero to working product in four months,' he added.
The Nexus 7 should be a budget beast but its spec pedigree suggests otherwise. A quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1280x800 HD IPS display, 8GB or 16GB of storage and Android Jelly Bean is on par with Asus' current, much pricier offerings.
On the subject of cost price, Rubin said: 'When it gets sold through the Play store there's no margin, it just basically gets (sold) through.'
While we are positively excited about having such a cheap but powerful Android device - for work purposes, of course - it's not great news for other Android tablet manufacturers like Samsung. The you know what has hit the fan.
To fight back, we can see Amazon, the direct competitor of the Nexus 7, fighting back hard in the US with a price drop, and future Android tablets to really be cheap to compete - assuming manufacturers bother at all.
Clearly, Google is wanting to get the Nexus 7 in households to ensure its advertising arm has enough devices in the wild to keep the money piling in.
Despite the incredibly aggressive pricing model now bestowed upon the Android platform, Rubin believes there's still room for innovation.
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