Google’s first officially-sanctioned tablet is selling like hotcakes.
In fact, it has already sold out at major retailers, including Costco, Gamestop, Sam’s Club, Office Depot, and Staples.
The online versions of all the above stores list the 16 GB device as either “backordered,” coming soon,” “in-store only,” or simply “out of stock.”
Your in-store chances aren’t much better. Among retailers that allow consumers to check item inventory at local stores, we haven’t been able to find any location in a major metropolitan area that lists the Nexus 7 as available.
It just goes to show that Google is hitting the right strategy with this device.
Obviously, for Google and the Nexus 7, price was the number one concern. It let the market play out for a while before it stepped in and stamped its seal of approval on its own tablet.
And during that time, it realized that if consumers want a 10-inch, fully-functional, graphically intensive tablet, they’ll buy an iPad.
But if they just want something to check their emails, play a mobile game every now and then, and maybe read an ebook on the go, they want something as cheap as possible.
Amazon was the one that managed to really drive that point home with the Kindle Fire. And when it announced the $200 price point for that device, many analysts expected it would actually be selling the unit at a loss, hoping to recoup those losses in digital content sales.
But in fact, the Kindle Fire only cost $191.65 to build when it launched, and the costs have since been shaved to just $171.
But Google went even further, taking the cost of a 7-inch tablet all the way down to $152. The pressure is now on Apple to launch a product that can compete in this growing segment on the tablet market.
