Why a 3 year deal with HTC for Google Nexus makes sense

Google was pleased enough with the final model of 2016’s Nexus phones built with HTC to make a pact with them for three years

Google was pleased enough with the final model of 2016’s Nexus phones built with HTC to make a pact with them for three years (Twitter/@evleaks)

HTC and Google have agreed to team up for three years on Nexus devices according to a post on Chinese social network Weibo by MyDrivers.

The rumours of HTC being the manufacturer of nexus devices of 2016 has been making the rounds for quite some time and according to MyDrivers, Google was pleased enough with the final product to make a pact with HTC for three years. Considering that Google already manufactures the Pixel C, they might have entered a contract to get more control over the upcoming Nexus devices. HTC has been facing some turbulence for the past few years in the smartphone market and wouldn't mind working with Google to pickup some tricks.

The last time, Google has worked with HTC multiple times. The first Nexus phone launched in January 2010 was the child of Google and HTC just like the Nexus 9 tablet. Besides these phones, the companies have also worked on Google Play Edition devices that run stock Android ROM. Though the programme died in January last year, Google seems to be planning ahead much like Apple is with a 5.8-inch AMOLED screen bearing iPhone for 2017.

Evan Blass, a reliable source of scoops on upcoming phones has shared the images of HTC M10 which could have multiple similarities with the next Nexus devices expected to launch in two sizes -- with 5- and 5.5-inch pressure sensitive screens -- much like the recent iPhones from Apple. With these similarities, Google seems to have taken it upon itself to beat Apple at the smartphone game by harnessing more control over the manufacturing of Nexus phones.

Google seems to be following a similar timeline to last year's by launching the new version of Android -- N or 7.0 -- to developers. If it continues to do so, we will see the next generation of Nexus phones which Google seems to be quite satisfied with go on sale soon after the Google I/O conference on May 18. But there's one more thing, the HTC is also one of the early entrant to the virtual reality (VR) party and Google's recently set up VR department might be working with HTC to make sure the next Nexus is also your on-the-go VR device of choice.

Google seems to have everything figured out except for how the other Android smartphone manufactures will react to this deal with their competitor.