Google has announced a trio of new hardware products set to challenge Apple's devices in the enterprise market just a day before the Cupertino-based iPhone maker launches its own new products on Oct. 16.
In a blog post, Google introduced the newest members in its Nexus family of products, namely the 6-inch Nexus 6 phablet to take on Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, the business-oriented Nexus 9 tablet and, surprisingly, the Nexus Player, which is Google's third stab at the set-top box market.
The products are intended to showcase Google's latest version of its mobile operating system, Android Lollipop, previously only known as Android L, and will give users a pure Android experience without the tweaks and add-ons that device manufacturers typically incorporate into their products.
The Nexus 6, previously codenamed Shamu for "killer whale," marks Google's foray into the phablet market, where it will be one of the biggest smartphones available, even bigger than Samsung's Galaxy Note 4. The phone is manufactured with Motorola, which Google is about to sell to Chinese technology firm Lenovo by the end of this year. It is powered by Qualcomm's 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 processor and runs on 3 GB of RAM. It is encased in soft-touch plastic material with contoured aluminum frame. Another notable feature is the 3220 mAh battery that can be used with Motorola's Turbo Charger technology, giving users a full six hours of battery life with a quick, 15-minute charge.
The Nexus 9, which is made by HTC, targets workers on the go. The 8.9-inch tablet runs on NVIDIA'S 64-bit Tegra K1 processor with 2 GB of RAM, which Google promises will give users "all the power and graphics of a desktop computer." It has a 6700 mAh battery allowing for up to nine hours of active Wi-Fi browsing or 30 days in standby mode. Google is also throwing in a wireless keyboard with the Nexus 9, although it is still unclear how much it will cost on top of the $599 it charges for the high-end 32 GB model with LTE. The no-LTE 32 GB model is priced at $479 and the 16 GB model at $399.
Like the Nexus 9, the Nexus 6 also runs against Google's previous strategy of pricing its high-end devices at a cost that makes them available to everyone. The latest smartphone to come out of Mountain View costs $649 for an unlocked 32 GB model and $699 for the 64 GB version off contract. That's a whopping $300 more than the release price of the Nexus 5 when Google launched the smartphone last year.
The price jumps suggest that Google could no longer be using its Android-for-everyone strategy and is instead taking a shot at Apple's more affluent market. It could also be aiming to encourage developers, who focus more on developing apps for the App Store where people are more likely to make a purchase, to spend more time on developing Android apps. Google also introduced Android One last month, an initiative that aims to help smartphone manufacturers in the developing world to produce Android devices at less than $100.
Finally, Google also introduced the new Nexus Player, a partnership with Asus that is the first device to run on Android TV, which was introduced at Google's I/O developer conference earlier this year. The $99 media player and remote control is Google's latest bid to compete with Apple TV and other streaming set-top boxes such as Roku and Amazon's Fire TV. Google's efforts in this area continue to be a hit-and-miss, but Google vice president of Android engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer says the company has been working closely with developers to provide a better experience on the new set-top box.
"We're much more opinionated about what an app should look like on a TV set, so we've been working very closely with app developers in the TV and content space over the past months on optimising their applications," Lockheimer tells the BBC. "You'll see a much more focused set of applications that are higher quality."
Aside from carrying channels such as YouTube, Netflix and Hulu Plus, Nexus Player can also stream Android games, which users can purchase an additional game pad for.
Google will start accepting pre-orders for the Nexus 9 and Nexus Player on Oct. 17 and will start shipping on Nov. 3. The Nexus 6 will become available for pre-orders at the end of October.
