Over 5 million Nexus 7 units expected to be shipped this year

The Google Nexus 7 tablet manufactured by Asus is one of the hottest tablets currently on the market. The success of this tablet is so good that Taiwanese suppliers believe that Asus will ship over five million units of the Nexus 7 till the end of 2012.

In the second quarter, Google expected the tablet to achieve shipments of 2.5 million Nexus 7 devices in 2012. However, Taiwan-based suppliers believe that the cumulative shipment volume in 2012 will reach five million units based on orders released, a report by Digitimes states.

5 million units to be shipped by end of this year

Digitimes reports, “While international vendors usually place orders for shipments to peak in October and November to meet year-end peak demand beginning in late November, Nexus 7 shipments are expected to remain at a high level of 700,000-1,000,000 units in both November and December, the sources pointed out.”

These figures may come as no surprise as this tablet is eating into Apple’s tablet market. The Taiwanese manufacturer, Asus, had recently revealed that sales of the Nexus 7 are nearing one million devices within a month of launch. Asus executives said the 7-inch tablet has created a big buzz this year with its low starting price of US$199, but both Google and Asustek have been careful about not divulging actual sales figures. In a research note, Piper Jaffray’s analyst Gene Munster stated, “We believe Google's Other Income of $666 suggests that Google likely sold 800k-1m Nexus 7s in Q3. Excluding our estimated Nexus 7 impact, core net revenues would have been up 2.5 percent q/q vs. 4.7 percent”

The Asus-manufactured Nexus 7, the brand along with Google, has recently released a new Nexus 7. The most important feature of the revised model of the Nexus 7 is its HSPA+ connectivity. The new Nexus 7 available in 16GB and 32GB capacities. The 16GB version will cost $199, which converts to roughly Rs 10,761. The 32GB version will cost $249, approximately Rs 13,465. The HSPA+ enabled Nexus 7 will be able to operate on more than 200 GSM providers around the world.

However, as of now, only the 16GB Nexus 7 is available in India, but it is selling at a much higher price than in the US. The tablet is available officially for Rs 19,999 for the 16GB version, which is almost double its cost in the US.

As for the specifications, Google’s Eric Schmidt had said last year that the Nexus 7 would be a high quality tablet, and Google has delivered on all counts. This model comes equipped with a 7-inch IPS display that boasts of a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chip. It has a 1GB RAM, which should be able to match up with the best in the business. This tablet should be a gamer's delight, and Google has touted it to be a serious gaming device as the brand has added a 12-core Nvidia GeForce GPU as well to the fray.