Looking to bag a Google Nexus 7 tablet? Then get yourself down to Carphone Warehouse.
Carphone is the first UK retailer to confirm it’ll sell Google’s 7-inch quad-core Android slab. It’s already available direct from Google and arrives in your hands next month.
Carphone Warehouse hasn’t confirmed a date for delivery — or opened a pre-order page — but Google says the tablet will be sent out in mid-July.
The Nexus 7 costs £159 for the 8GB version, but Carphone Warehouse is only selling the 16GB model.
The 16GB Nexus 7 costs £200 from Carphone Warehouse or direct from Google Play. Postage costs may apply (it’s £10 from Google, but it’s also offering £15 of credit for its app store). Carphone Warehouse is also offering the tablet free if you get a phone contract that allows you to tether, or share the phone’s data connection with the tablet. Deals will appear online and in store in due course.
The Nexus 7 doesn’t have 3G so phone networks can’t sell it with a data contract, unless it’s tethered with a phone. It’s such a hot product the networks may be interested, but there isn’t much in it for them — the price is so low I doubt anyone would make much money from it.
At these prices, Google is probably going to shift loads of tablets, but low price means slim profit margins — if any at all. Google is probably paying retailers to stock it and selling it itself at a loss, with the hope of making the money back on app, movie and music purchases. Paltry profit and no ongoing contract to keep bilking customers means there isn’t much of an incentive for the networks to get involved.
This is your first chance to get your hands on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest software for mobile phones and tablets from Google.
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