Google already wowed customers when they started selling the 8GB Nexus 4 at $299 and the 16GB model for $50 extra. Not noticing they had hit gold with the cheap smartphone, the Nexus 4 was out of stock for the first few months since launch.
The Nexus 4 came with an almost complete set of top end specs, with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB of RAM, 720p display and adequate battery life, the only real mistake was not adding an LTE-chip for US buyers.
No figures have been released, estimates say the Nexus 4 has sold millions of units. We doubt this has hit double digit millions, considering the only carrier in the US carrying the Nexus 4 is T-Mobile and the only real way to get it off contract is through the Google Play store.
Google has dropped the price by $100 in the US and various amounts in Europe and the UK – now the phone only costs $199 off contract. This is an incredible deal for a smartphone with Android 4.3 and marginally lower specs than the top end phones today.
No word has been given by Google as to why the price drop has occurred, but as usual practice, it seems the company is lowering the price of the smartphone to get remaining stock sold, before the launch on the new Nexus device.
Leakers are still unsure about the next Nexus smartphone, for a while it was almost settled that LG would make the next generation Nexus 5, working with the same blueprint as the LG G2 with a few adjustments here and there to give it the Nexus feel.
However, new leaks say that Motorola will work with Google on the new ‘Moto Nexus’, this will be similar to the Moto X and Google may incorporate the Moto Maker for the new Nexus smartphone, allowing tons of customisations off contract.
The one problem with this leak is the international availability, Motorola is currently shipping the customised Moto X to the US only, with Canada and Latin America getting the stock black and white versions for the time being.
If Google were to go international with the Moto Nexus, they would either need to crop down the amount of customisations, the return guarantee or the US assembling, each one is collateral to getting the Nexus device on the international grid.