One of the things that we thought was smart of Google when they introduced the Nexus 7 last week was to launch their new 7 inch baby not only in the United States but also nearly simultaneously in the UK, Canada and Australia. In other words just about the entire English speaking world. Well those release dates still hold but one bit of info that is making its way around the web today has to do with a difference in content that those non-U.S. nationals will have access to when they fire up their Nexus 7s and head on over to the Google Play store.
It seems that at least for now, tv shows, music and magazines will not be available outside of the United States. In the UK the Nexus 7 order page says that users will have access to 'thousands of movies' and the 'world's largest collection of ebooks'. The same goes for the Canadian and Australian sites. A rep from Google when questioned on this by CNET responded:
"Currently, the U.K. [Google Play] store offers apps, movie rentals, e-books and devices. We're clearly eager to expand this in time, but currently, that's the offering in the U.K,"
Now while you might need to get your music, tv shows and mags elsewhere for now, all the countries mentioned above still will have access to the over 600,000 apps, movies, ebooks and games available in Google Play. We're not entirely certain why tv, music and magazines aren't being made available outside of the U.S. at this time but it probably has to do with the complications of getting the licensing sorted out as well as the differences in content offerings in each nation.
So any UK, Canadian or Australian forum members care to share your thoughts on this? Does it change the value proposition to you and your opinion of the Nexus 7 or are these minor issues that won't affect your purchase? Let us hear your input in the comments!
CNET