Behind the evolution of Nexus hardware and why Google chose to roll out two Nexus handsets
How Google Changed The Smart Phone: A Deep History Of The Nexus Phone — Google's vice president of Android walks us through how Nexus hardware and Android software influence each other and how they always have. Tweets: @johnpaczkowski Tweets: John Paczkowski / @johnpaczkowski : A Deep History Of The Nexus Phone featuring @lockheimer, who's been there from the beginning http://www.buzzfeed.com/... http://twitter.com/... Expand More For Next 4 Unexpand More For Next 4
Context & Ripple Effects
This deep history lands the day after Google's Nexus event keynote, and it reframes what was announced: not just new phones, but the end point of a program where Nexus hardware and Android have been designed to shape each other since the beginning, as Android vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer tells BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski. The two-handset rollout is the visible symptom — Google now ships reference devices aimed at different tiers instead of a single annual exemplar.
The timing matters because the software side of that loop has been getting more ambitious: with App Indexing and Google Now On Tap, Google is trying to make the whole phone an interface for search, which only works if the OS and the device beneath it are built together. That pressure helps explain the trajectory the related reporting picks up next — a 2016 report that Google is seeking Apple-like control of Nexus manufacturing, reducing its hardware partners' role.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a choice of two Google-branded handsets covering different price points, each running stock Android with the newest features before any OEM skin — raising the bar for Samsung, LG, Motorola and other partners whose skinned flagships now launch alongside Google's own.
Second-order effects
- Hardware partners face a squeeze from both ends: Google's reference devices set the software baseline for free while features like Now On Tap depend on deep OS integration partners can't easily replicate, pushing Google toward tighter control of manufacturing itself per the 2016 report.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the Nexus program evolves from a hands-off reference-design exercise into a vertically controlled product line — a structural shift in how Android reaches users that prefigures Google's later Pixel-era hardware ambitions, though the corpus here stops short of confirming that outcome.
The trend: Google's mobile hardware strategy is moving from licensing Android to partners toward owning the flagship device where its software debuts first.