Asus Online Rep Reveals Nexus 7.2 Specs / Available Later This Month (July)

[sholling]

I disagree, Google drive is not the reason. It's Google's belief that not having external storage gives a better use experience and makes an Android device less complicated. It's the whole where do apps save data and people getting confused as to whether the data they are looking for is on the internal or external storage. I'm happy with no external storage on a Nexus but I wish they'd give more storage options like 64Gb et cetera.

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So you are saying that Google thinks its tablet customers are too stupid to use a tablet. That speaks volumes for Google's mentality. There really isn't any rocket science to placing videos and music on the SD card and everything else in main storage. People vacationing with kids might even want to bring extra SD cards filled with Videos. No, it's blindly obvious that Google wants to force customers to buy videos and music from Google Play and play them online, and they want to force customers to use Google Drive. That's that's the only reason that Google would insist that their Google branded products remain storage space challenged while almost every other Android tablet maker includes an SD card slot. Google sees it's competition as Amazon, not Samsung, and Google wants to sell or rent content and storage space on their servers. The fact is that the Nexus product line are low margin products produced to drive traffic to the play store and other Google services (and advertisers) because those are the real profit centers - just as they are for Amazon.

[JayJ]

Read this...

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[fxsarge]

I love my Google play services!  Your Google play services won't read anything on a SD card and I'm OK with that. Having my complete music library in the cloud at my fingertips and now with music unlimited there is no reason for the silly SD cards! 32gb will get you more than enough games, music,  and movies for kids on vacation and if not than maybe you need to be spending more time with them.

I've had plenty of devices with SD cards and its not like the digital copy that comes with movies can be loaded up on them because they only work with crapple. Apps struggle to move back and forth from SD cards too. Now maybe if your a pirate and stealing your media and making honest people pay more for theirs then I could see a need for a SD card.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

[bjs229]

The article is interesting. I find it a little exaggerated to the notion of how archaic sd is or that finding files on or using an sd card is difficult. The average user does it all the time on their cell phone. No slot isn't a deal breaker for me but I need more space. It is annoying having to shuffle media when you are out of room.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[matt]

I wonder how much of the missing sd card, usb storage, hdmi out, back camera etc. is due to google trying to keep the os completely open with no proprietary drivers and licensing fees or patent trolls suing over every little thing. They call the nexus os vanilla android for a reason. The oems get to fork what google can't but take longer to update with their drivers inserted in the mix.

[S.Prime]

I will not express my opinion concerning, Google's choice to include or exclude hardware, but let's look at it from this perspective. Apple leads the tablet market with the iPad, iTunes Store and a loyal "FanBoy" following, who support and defend what ever Apple offers. Microsoft offered Surface, Microsoft Store, and failed to achieve the following they hoped for, so we don't have a lot of "M-Boys. Google has offered a more successful hardware package, with the Nexus line and a successful Play Store. Now, l ask you to look at our current topic's Google support and ask yourself, are we poised to become the "Boy" piece of the puzzle that Google needs to succeed?

G-Boy S.Prime ;-)

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[sholling]

Read this...

Thank you for linking the article. I don't agree with it because it's utter nonsense. If Google wants to provide their customers with a big memory space they can provide it while still providing the flexibility to add more storage if a customer needs it. It's not like Google wants to include a ton of storage, they offer the least that they think they can get away with for a reason and only began offering a 32GB Nexus 7 after Amazon stole their thunder and threatened the PlayStore gravy train with a 32GB Fire HD.

Anyway to each their own. I'll skip the new Nexus if Google leaves out an SD card. There isn't that big of an improvement to make it a compelling investment.   

[JayJ]

I think your logic is flawed, if you think Amazon's fork of Android has any chance of seriously competing with Google's Android. I don't think Google introduced a 32GB Nexus 7 because of Amazon, they simply listen to consumers.
I think Google not including expandable storage is a cumulation of all these things, the cloud services, the software and ease of use. What Matt added is indeed very true. Google Nexus devices don't have proprietary software like Bluetooth stacks and Wi-Fi stacks so Google don't have to pay licencing fees to the owners of that software thus keeping the cost of these devices down and that seems to me to be one of the major factors in all of this. Just look at the price of the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 4 in comparison with their OEM equivalents. Take the new GPE (Google Play Edition) phones and the pricing of these devices.
I'm not trying to convince you to buy a Nexus, if you don't want a Nexus and expandable storage is more important to you than a pure Android experience, being at the forefront of updates, that's your choice. I'm just stating that I don't believe this conspiracy theory that Google only includes minimal storage because it wants it's users to have to use it's services, if that was the case Android wouldn't be open source with a Play store offering alternatives like Dropbox, Box and all the other services Google offer. Much like Apple and Amazon's closed ecosystems.

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[Babyfacemagee]

Ok, I'll throw my hat into the ring as to my opinion and I don't mean to step on any toes (or egos) if I do it's unintentional .  Here's my thoughts...  I think it's a little of all of the above as to why they don't include removable storage on the Nexus devices...so everyone is right to an extent....however,  I believe the PRIMARY reason is in fact to encourage users to use Google's services and Play store.   The Nexus devices were introduced as a result of Google and the rest of the industry seeing the success that Apple has had tying hardware to their content...the iTunes Store...and notice that Apple devices also do not have a direct expandable storage option like MicroSD.  Despite my preference for Android the financial reality is that per capita, Apple makes far more money per device owner than Google does on Android.  This has been clearly shown in many reports.  Google would love to monetize its users more effectively and this is one way of doing it.  While Google with Android and Apple with iOS's business models are not the same, they do share some components.

Businesses are in business to make money.  Google makes its money by having as many people as possible use their services (this is their primary business including search, which is part of these services) and the Google Play Store is an ancillary source of revenue that the company hopes will become a big earner long term just like iTunes is for Apple.  Providing an expandable storage option makes it far too easy for a consumer to just download an app, game or movie from some other source and move it directly onto their device thus circumventing any profit for Google.  I don't think there's any question of this.  If Microsoft could get away with not having expandable storage on their Surface devices they would do the same thing.  The legacy of Windows having USB, etc would make this untenable for Windows legacy users thus Microsoft gains more marketing value by using their expandable storage and openness as a selling point.  Android has no legacy of this since it started as a mobile platform...it grew in response and in tandem largely to iOS and the competition Android and iOS have enjoyed over the past few years. 

While there might be other contributing factors such as keeping costs down, etc, by not including expandable storage on their devices...sure it's a small factor... the more practical reason is that Google makes it just that much more difficult to put content on them from outside...which would lose them a revenue source.   Now it is true that Android devices are more open than Apple's.  You can purchase apps from Amazon and other places online in addition to the Google Play Store.  Still, it would be naive to think that Google does not want a piece of this pie.  Every Nexus device...and certified Android device for that matter has the Google Play Store preinstalled and it is Google's hope that the majority of users will simply do the 'easy thing' and tap the Google Play icon to get their content.  I give kudos to Google for at least not preventing users from using other options and keeping the platform unlocked down (Apple certainly doesn't let you), but just because Android/Google allows you to get content from other sources doesn't mean that Google wouldn't REALLY LIKE you to buy your stuff from them as well as use Google search, mail, maps, calendar, etc...which is where Google really makes most of their dough through their contextual advertising.

I'm going to go one step farther here.  I believe we are shortly approaching a  point where the hardware from all the major competitors in this space..Google, Apple, Microsoft...will be so comparable and with such little differentiation as to real capability...that the true differentiator for each company will move towards content.   When you can buy the latest Nexus phone/tablet or Apple phone/Tablet or Microsoft Phone/Tablet for the same price...with largely the same capability...at that point the consumer will say to himself...which has the best content.   Apple recognized this early...thus created iTunes.  Google is following with Google Play.  Microsoft has its new app store and of course the world of Windows applications.

The next stage I believe will be each of these hardware manufacturers aligning themselves with some form of proprietary content partner.  Just like Netflix and Amazon have started creating original programming to battle HBO and Network TV...notice that Microsoft has announced they will make the 'Halo' tv show that will only be available to Xbox One and probably Windows 8/mobile owners.   I firmly believe that Apple and Google...as well as Microsoft continuing...they will all start making original content in the coming years in order to entice consumers to buy their hardware platform.  In fact I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Google/Apple/Microsoft purchase a major film or tv studio/network.  It would make perfect sense.   Imagine if you can only watch the next Star Wars film on an Android device or the latest hit tv show on an iPhone.   Will it go this far...complete vertical integration of hardware with content to the exclusion of others?  Well we're seeing the beginnings of it.   It might not go in that direction but I wouldn't be surprised if it does. 

That's my 2 cents and I'm sticking with it.  Feel free to disagree and I reserve the right to be utterly and completely wrong ~ (but i'm probably not)

[matt]

There's always at least four sides to every story, you can accept the dogma of the day or look past it in hopes of insight. I'm happy with the versatility of the nexus 7 and as the os and devices mature am looking forward to new developments and discoveries.

Checked out the sero site some time back looking for a teardown or device issues, but I would rather move on from tegra3 to 4 or snapdragon and 2mB ram, it's wait and see for me. Watch out for the bleeding edge.

[S.Prime]

+1 BFM and well stated.

In my opinion, market share belongs to Apple and at this point no single device, when it comes to a Smart Phone or Tablet, is poised to be an iPhone or iPad killer. Yet Google is positioning Google Play and Google Services to compete with iTunes and, succeed or not, it will take a significant bite out of Apple. Like it or not, Apple has achieved "Name Recognition" and represents quality to the consumer market, so to eclipse or erode Apple's market share, the challenge for Google, Amazon and Microsoft is to obtain market share through consumer support, in the form of "FanBoys". Steve Jobs said that Apple makes hardware so that users will buy from iTunes and as we see, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have responded with their own "Store Fronts", because as Jobs recognized, the "Store" represents the major source of revenue. I agree with matt, that I am happy with the versatility of the Google Nexus products, but Google remains challenged to compete with the "Name Recognition" of "Kindle" (Amazon) and "iPad" (Apple). As a case in point, Google I/O 2013 focused on services and development and hardware took a backseat, which for me, represents a move to brand "Google", rather than their products. In the future, look for hardware, from Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft to continue to support maximizing revenue from their own sources and if the omission of an SD-card represents a source of revenue, then we are unlikely to see one.

S.Prime