Nexus devices have always been, and likely will be for the foreseeable future, seen as the best way to experience Android. No Samsung TouchWiz, no HTC Sense, no Verizon Navigator, no AT&T Address Book, just pure Android on a piece of hardware that’s directly supported by the search giant themselves. There’s only one small problem. Distribution. The Nexus 4 was sold, officially, in only eight countries. And the new Nexus 7? Just ten.
This obviously has to change, and according to Artem Russakovskii, one of the founders of Android Police, it will by the end of the year. He says that the Google Play Devices Store will open in Finland, Norway, and several other unnamed countries by the end of this year. That means not just Nexus devices, but things like Chromebooks and Chromecasts too.
The importance of this can’t be emphasized enough, especially since a majority of Europeans buy their phones without any subsidies. If you can tell someone in Finland that they only have to spend 350 Euros to buy a phone that’s essentially seen as the best Android phone on the market, why would they want to buy a Galaxy S4 or a Note 3? The bigger screen and better camera? Maybe.
In a perfect world, Google would simply setup a Devices Play Store that addressed all of Europe. Keep all the devices in a warehouse somewhere in Germany or France, and then ship to everyone in the European Union. That’s a personal dream of mine, but we’ll see what happens.
