Google to Shake Things up with the ‘Nexus 2’

Made Essential Reading on 11 January 2010 Felix Hemsley

If you wanted to enable your workforce with mobile devices, up until now the options have been rather limited; iPhone or Blackberry, and with its mail server and capability being widely accepted as the industry leader, the choice was most likely to be the Blackberry. Others have tried to enter the market, but with little penetration, such as Nokia with the e71 and e75 devices tailored specifically with email in mind. However the limiting factor on all the competition was always the server architecture in the back end for email itself.

With the Nexus 1 released so recently, it is surprising to see such a rapid announcement of the successor which for arguments sake is being dubbed the ‘Nexus 2’. Whilst the information around the developments are still in the early stages, popular belief put an HTC device at the very core of this plan. This would maintain the statements by Google that it will never produce its own mobile hardware, or at least not for the foreseeable future, and maintain this relationship which has seen the manufacturer bring other Android platforms to the market, including the G1, MyTouch 3G and Hero devices. Without the addition of a true physical keyboard, many devices have always been left by the wayside as the novelty factor wears thin for the heavy user demanding responsive accurate typing. With this in mind, one can expect to see the next version of the Nexus to arrive with a good old fashioned raised keyboard.

With its strong foothold in the digital industry and with more than enough email competence learnt through its own email platform, Gmail (now accounting for 6% of all online business email usage), Google is surely set to be a realistic competitor in the enterprise arena, offering up stiff competition for Research in Motion and potentially able quell endeavours of other forces trying to enter a currently uncompetitive market place.