What If There is No Nexus 5?

There has been a lot of rumours going around about what the Nexus 5 may look like.

Quick history lesson for those who are not Android Gurus...

Google make Android. They released it to the world and it was used by the likes of Samsung, HTC et al as base operating system for their phones... but... Android in the past was not very feature-full so all the phone manufacturers added features and pretty much changed all their phones from the "pure Google Android experience". Then the phone carriers added their own software.

Google then decided they wanted a phone that would be pure Google Android and they also wanted one that would be slightly ahead of its time with full capabilities and would be able to show off every feature of the latest Android release.

So, they got HTC to make them a phone which they called "Nexus" - The Nexus One. It came out at the same time as Android 2.1 (Eclair) and was designed to showcase that version of Android.

Next Google got Samsung to make the next Nexus based on their Galaxy S phone. This was when Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) was released. Samsung also got called in to make the next Nexus phone (Galaxy Nexus) at the time of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and then it was time for LG with the Nexus 4  and Jelly Bean.

Now that KitKat has been released - who is going to make the Nexus for this one?

I think there will be no Nexus 5.

And here is why.

1. It would be too politically dangerous. Google now own Motorola so giving them the ability to develop the first device to run a new Google operating system would not go down well with anyone really. Especially Samsung, LG and HTC who are Motorola's competition and Google's partners. 
2. It wouldn't make sense to Google to give it to Samsung because they are so powerful and that would kill off Motorola's attempts to get back into contention. Likewise, LG and HTC.
3. All of the major cellphone manufacturers have just released arguably the best handsets possible - Samsung Galaxy S 4, HTC One, Motorola Moto-X and LG G2.
4. It would be either difficult for a Nexus device to compete with the above devices or unfair for it to be singled out by Google at this point. It would have to be amazing in every way and have something more. And then a little something more. 
5. All of the above phones also have a semi-Nexus version anyhow.. they all have Google Editions which are essentially Google Nexus phones. 

So there is no point in Google releasing a Nexus phone and it would be a bad idea.

All the above is true except for 2 things: 

1. None of the Google Edition phones run KitKat. 
2. There is no Google Edition phone of the LG G2. 

And there you have it. I believe that within a few days LG will release a Google Edition G2 (it may be model number G820) and following that release, Google will announce no Nexus 5 but that all Google Edition phones will run Kitkat.

This would be good for Samsung, LG, HTC and especially Motorola but without being too good for any one brand. The only it would be bad for is Apple who would be facing a 4 pronged attack from 4 amazing phones with a new amazing (we hope) operating system. 

The rumours that the new LG would be the new Nexus and that it wouldn't be the new Nexus but a copy of the G2 would be right and right. It would be the last piece in the puzzle before Google can release Kitkat and a number of Nexus devices - or rather - Google Experience devices. 

Time will tell if I am right or not. 

Oh... whats this?

Just dusting off this blog to post things that are not security related.

As always, security stuff will be covered in my Security Thoughts Blog.