Rumours have been swirling for a while that Google was about to retire its four-year old Nexus program in favour of a new one called Android Silver taht would focus on high-end devices that adhere to a hardware and software standard dictated by Google. Without commenting directly on Android Silver, Dave Burke, head of Android engineering and the Nexus program at Google, told ReadWrite that Google is “still invested in Nexus,” suggesting that the Nexus program is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Burke confirmed that Google’s practice of releasing a new Nexus device built by a partner when a new named and numbered version of Android is released will continue. “People have been commenting about Nexus because there is something else and they think that means the end of Nexus. That is the totally wrong conclusion to make,” he explained.
While a new version of Android is in development, a hardware team works in parallel to design a Nexus device that will be able to showcase the new software’s capabilities.
When we are working, there are sort of two outputs. We’re building a Nexus device and we’re building the open source code. There is no way you can build the open source code without the phone or tablet or whatever you are building. You have to live and breathe the code you are developing.
You can’t build a platform in the abstract, you have to build a device (or devices). So, I don’t think can can or will ever go away. And then, I think Nexus is also interesting in that it is a way of us explaining how we think Android should run. It is a statement, almost a statement of purity in some respects. I don’t see why we would ever turn away from that, it wouldn’t make sense.
Burke would not comment on rumours about Silver, saying that “Android Silver is not something that we are commenting on right now.” Rumours have suggested that it would not launch until 2015.
Sources : ReadWrite // 9to5Google