In the past we’ve had HTC, Samsung and LG make Nexus smartphones. But it appears that this year we’ll have a new manufacturer making the Nexus. And right now all signs are pointing to Motorola. The US manufacturer, based in Chicago, which we went and checked out last week for the Moto X, and Moto G launch event. We’ve also heard rumors of it being LG for a third year, but the stronger rumors have been Motorola, and we’ve seen plenty more leaks for Motorola as well.
Usually whoever makes the Nexus smartphone sees a big change in the amount of phones they sell in the next year or two. Just look at HTC, when they made the Nexus One, they became really big after that. But some dumb mistakes made them drop to barely even making a profit. Then there’s Samsung. Which many of us could argue that the Nexus wasn’t the sole reason why Samsung got as big as they did. It’s more of a mixture of marketing and the Nexus program. But the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus definitely did help out Samsung. Then there’s LG who made the Nexus 4 and 5 in 2012 and 2013. They haven’t seen the full fruits of the Nexus labor just yet, but so far they have really grown and are shipping and selling record numbers of smartphones this year.
Now onto Motorola. They have been having great success since they relaunched the company last year. With shipments increasing by about 60% year over year. And they are now number 3 in India, and number 1 over in Brazil. Which is a big deal, especially in India. Given that India is the second largest country. With phones like the Moto G selling extremely well, it’ll be interesting to see how well a Nexus could work for them.