Google will continue selling devices via Google Play

Google has revealed that it will continue selling Nexus devices via Google Play and this model is ‘here to stay’. Given the Nexus One web sales debacle and recent Nexus 4 supply issues, one might anticipate that Google would be rethinking its strategy of selling Nexus phones online, but apparently Google isn’t worried.

“We’re getting better at fulfilling demand and kind of operating the store in a way that consumers expect us to,” Jamie Rosenberg, VP of Google Play, noted at a roundtable session at Mobile World Congress 2013.

“Google Play is a reliable way for us to get these devices into market in different countries around the world,” he added.

Google hasn’t really had great run with online sales model so far. First the direct sales approach that company applied with Nexus One, resulted in very few sales. Google came back to online direct sales with Galaxy Nexus in Google Play, which wasn’t really a massively popular smartphone, but the Nexus 4 orders really revealed the condition of Google Play devices sales. There were hardly any supply and devices were getting out of stock in the matter of minutes.

Google Play is growing faster than Android

Google also announced at this session that Google Play is growing at a rate faster than Android activations. It stated that pay-outs to app developers quadrupled in the past year.

“Consumer spending in Google Play grew faster than Android and that says a lot considering how fast the Android base has grown,” Rosenberg said.

Company also shared few numbers, which are similar to what we have heard in the past.

Android device activations: 1.3m devices per day

Total Android devices: 500 million

Total number of app in Google Play: 700,000 apps

Sources (1, 2)