[tonyfelice]

"In an ocean with great waves, whales fly into the air unnoticed, but in a calm pond, even the tiniest minnow makes a ripple." -confucius

When the iPhone debuted, no doubt Google sensed the impact, and Apple's ability to create an effective closed ecosystem had already been proven with iTunes. I believe that Google wanted to undermine the market long enough to understand it. True enough, "android winning" was not the same as "Google winning," but it did mean everyone else "losing." I believe that for Google, Android started as a strategy in search of a goal. It was a smokescreen to prevent Apple from taking a dominant position by default. As the data poured in, they began to understand how to leverage it, and the Nexus line became an expression of such understanding, working to establish more control, and hopefully emerge from the smokescreen they had created.

[millstone]

> I believe that for Google, Android started as a strategy in search of a goal. It was a smokescreen to prevent Apple from taking a dominant position by default

Impossible. Google bought Android years before Apple sold a single phone.

[coopdog]

I will only buy / recommend nexus phones. Knowing that the phone will be updated quickly and for a long time is worth a premium, rather than being a cash in strat for Google.

[innino]

my impression of nexus devices is that you are tied to the package of google services. is this so, or can a nexus-user break free from google's domain and enjoy the benefits of a quality low-cost device without being beholden to the google ecosystem?

[gbl08ma]

From what I know, for the 2012 Nexus 7 at least, there are lots of custom ROMs, some of them without Google Apps. There are even alternative operating systems like Ubuntu Touch. I don't know if other emerging mobile OS such as Firefox OS and Sailfish have been ported already or not, but if not, I'm sure they will, given the market share of the device and the amount of people interested. Ultimately, you can also run GNU/Linux with the usual light desktop environments.

[EdwardDiego]

> whales fly into the air unnoticed

Is this the origin of the Twitter fail-whale?