New Google Nexus 7 Goes Live Early On Best Buy Site

We’re waiting here in San Francisco for the Google Chrome/Android/Nexus event to start (see Danny’s live blog). But Best Buy has already put up preorder pages for the new Nexus 7 ahead of this morning’s announcement.

The 16GB version is priced at $229. Versions with more memory cost more, up to $269.

It’s interesting that Google is raising prices on the device at a time of intensifying tablet competition. The original Nexus 7 was priced at $199 and above. Perhaps the “classic” version will continue to be sold at the lower price point, in the same way that Apple sells the iPhone 4 and 4S models for less than the iPhone 5.

The device is thinner and lighter than the original. It has a sharper, higher-resolution screen. It also features Android 4.3 and two cameras (5 MP rear and 1.2 MP front).

Despite the apparent success of the original Nexus 7 it’s only driving 1.2 percent of tablet-based Web traffic in North America (according to Chitika).

Source: Chitika