Nexus 10

Although Google’s Android platform has been wildly successful, the company’s efforts to make its own consumer electronics have often faltered. While we’ve heard a lot about anemic Chromebook sales recently, Enders Analysis strategy consultant Benedict Evans has done some detective work and found that sales of Google’s Nexus 10 tablet likely aren’t doing that much better. Essentially, Evans has extrapolated traffic data from the Google Play store to produce a rough estimate that there are currently just 680,000 Nexus 10 tablets in use, versus around 6.8 million Nexus 7 tablets currently in use. As Evans notes, this estimate means that Nexus 10 sales were bested by Microsoft’s Surface tablet, which has almost universally been regarded as a flop.

People-centric ads have done wonders for Samsung (005930) over the past year and now Google (GOOG) is trying to get in on the action with a new ad for the Nexus 10 that depicts the tablet as a perfect helper for prospective parents. The ad shows two expecting parents using the tablet to help them pick out names, to read books on parenting, to film videos of their baby shower and even to watch relevant comedies such as Knocked Up. While the new ad does fit in with the well-established convention of tablet ads that give laundry lists of applications, it focusses more than most on telling a coherent story and of showing how the tablet can make life easier for people in a specific situation. A video of the entire ad is posted below. More →

Hurricane Sandy may have cancelled Google’s (GOOG) big event on Monday but that doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait to see the new Nexus 10 tablet. BriefMobile has posted a short video of the Nexus 10 that shows the tablet opening up its Chrome browser. The website has also reported that the tablet will feature a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The full video of the Nexus 10 is posted below. More →