Well, it doesn’t always pay to be the main manufacturer of Nexus devices, that’s what Quanta probably knows, after being unable to reach its goal of 20 million units shipped for 2013. The company declined to comment on its clients, so they’re not pointing fingers.
Market watchers estimate that Quanta could reduce its tablet shipment target for 2013 by as much as 40%, to just 12-13 million units. Quanta has orders for the Kindle tablets and the Nexus 7 2, with the latter registering weaker sales than expected. Google has yet to announce sales, so this is all from the grapevine.
Right now Google prices the 16 GB WiFi Nexus 7 2013 at $229 and the 32 GB unit at $269, while the 32 GB LTE unit is $349. If we compared that to the rivals’ 7 inch slates, the new Nexus 7 has failed to impress customers. The entry level slate market is ruled by $100 7 inch tablets and consumers sometimes choose to spend more and buy the iPad Mini in the end. Google is said to not work with ASUS on the third gen Nexus 7, so Quanta will lose a major tablet client…
