UK retailer Argos confirms Google to offer 32GB Nexus 7, available for £199.99
With Apple all but certain to introduce a new, smaller iPad at its San Jose launch event next week, Google appears to have plans of its own to make its popular Nexus 7 more attractive to consumers by offering …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google launched the Nexus 7 in June 2012 with Android 4.1 and a $199 entry price; its UK proposition was constrained by the absence of Google music, magazine and TV offerings. Argos’s confirmation adds a higher-capacity model to that local retail channel.
The move follows a September report that Google was preparing a 3G Nexus 7, suggesting the company is broadening the tablet’s configurations rather than relying on its original entry model alone.
First-order effects
- Argos can sell a 32GB Nexus 7 at £199.99, giving UK buyers a confirmed higher-storage option from Google.
- Google expands the Nexus 7’s UK retail proposition while its local media-store offering remains narrower than in the US.
Second-order effects
- More onboard storage is especially relevant for UK Nexus 7 buyers without Google’s local music, magazine and TV catalogues, because it makes downloaded apps and personal media a more central part of the device proposition.
- A reported 3G Nexus 7 configuration and the confirmed 32GB model put pressure on tablet rivals to compete across connectivity and storage tiers, not only at an entry price.
Third-order effects
- The Nexus 7 line points toward tablet competition being segmented through configurations and retail availability as much as through a single headline device price.
- Where platform content services arrive unevenly by country, hardware capacity becomes a compensating product lever rather than a simple specification upgrade.
The trend: Google is using Nexus 7 variants to tailor a low-cost Android tablet platform to different buyer needs and market constraints.