Google Nexus 6 Gets Price Cut: Reasons Why Tech Giant Might have Resorted to Unusual Deal

Google has come up with a pleasant surprise for gadget lovers by cutting the price of its current flagship device, Motorola Nexus 6. The new deal is unusual as the tech giant has the tradition of selling its device at a discounted price just before the release of its flagship device, but not at this time of the year.

Nexus 6 was unveiled in October last year before it was released the following month. It was no doubt a good device and critics were all praise for its features, but were critical of its screen size and huge price hike from its predecessor.

Now, Google has resorted to unexpected price cut. Both the 32GB and 64GB models of Nexus 6 in Midnight Blue and Cloud White have received $150 discount. The 32GB version in now available on Google Play Store for $499 (₹37,000) as against the original price of $649, while the 64GB version is priced $549 (₹42,000) against $699 at the time of its launch. 

Usually, Google reduces the price of its flagship smartphones a few weeks before of a new device except its LG Nexus 5, which was discontinued a couple of months ago without even a single price cut. But this time, the company has cut the price of its current flagship device, the Nexus 6, months before the release of Nexus 5 2nd Generation.

What might have made Google to take up such an unusual step? Here are two reasons why the company might have cut the price of the Nexus 6:

1) Price Hike: The price of Nexus 6 was reasonable at $649 for 32GB version and $699 for 64GB version, considering its up-to-date specifications, but Nexus fans might have taken the hike as too steep compared to the price of Nexus 5 that came with just $350 for the 16GB variant and $400 for the 32GB model. The huge price hike has reportedly disappointed prospective buyers of the device. This factor might have forced Google to come up with a deal earlier than expected.

2) Poor Sales: Google has been tight-lipped on the sales of Nexus 6, but several reports have claimed that it didn't live up to the expectations after the stupendous success of its predecessor, Nexus 5. A review of the device by Daily Star claimed that many people, who were not comfortable with big screen phones, were not happy with sudden increase of screen size from 5-inch to 6-inch. This might have led to relatively poor sales (compared to Nexus 5) of the device, besides the huge price hike.

Nexus 6 has features like 5.96-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 1,440x2,560 pixels (493 ppi pixel density) and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 clocking at 2.7GHz, Android 5.0 Lollipop, upgradable to 5.1 Lollipop, and 32/64GB internal memory and 3GB RAM. It also houses a 13mp main camera and 2mp front snapper, and a non-removable Li-Po 3,220mAh battery.