Is The Nexus Program Dead?
Now here’s a story that’s undoubtedly going to ruffle some feathers… Everyone’s favourite leakster, @evleaks, tweeted recently that “there is no Nexus 6. Farewell, Nexus.” He then tweeted shortly after that “Don’t worry, there’s a silver lining to this cloud…” So what does that all mean?
Well for starters, @evleaks seems to believe that we will NOT be seeing a Nexus 6 despite past rumours that one could be in the works from LG or Motorola or even Lenovo. That means that the Nexus 5 will be the very last phone that comes to us via the Nexus program. The “silver lining” that he refers to is undoubtedly in reference to Google’s rumoured, and still fairly mysterious, Silver Certification Program.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Silver Certification Program it is supposedly Google’s new means of getting manufacturers to offer a near stock Android experience. The idea is to encourage manufacturers to produce high-end phones with minimal software customizations. These phones would also allegedly get some sort of special treatment from Google, possibly in the form of customer support from Google (there have been rumours that Google would set up little booths that would promote these devices and offer this customer service).
Of course, take this story with the appropriate amount of salt even though it does come from a very reputable source. What do you guys think though? Would it be a mistake for Google to abandon Nexus phones or is it a good move on their part?