Are we ready for $200 flagship off-contract Nexus phone?

Posted by Marko on July 27, 2012 05:28 am 21

I've been thinking - if google (with Asus) can make and sell a $200 7'' tablet with a Tegra 3 processor, a high quality 7'' screen and a huge battery, why can't it make a flagship smartphone and sell it off-contract for the same price? Surely, the smaller screen and battery would offset the cost of a 3g radio. I can't see Samsung or HTC jumping on board because that would canibalise their $500-600 superphone market, but a smaller and currently less successful player like Asus or Huawei would certainly jump on board.

What do you think, can we expect something like that in the autumn? I am pretty sure it can be done, it is just a question of how hardware vendors and carriers would react to it? And is there enough incentive for google to do this? If not, why not?

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