Android Silver has been rumoured since the middle of the year, apparently slated to be a higher end version of the Nexus program sold through carriers and retailers. The Android Silver program was apparently being headed up by former Google Chief Business Officer, Nikesh Arora who recently left for Softbank and was apparently stalled as of the last ‘update’ on Silver, but according to TK Tech News, the program may not be dead, with the first Android Silver device to be the so-called Nexus ‘Shamu’ from Motorola, released as the Moto S.
TK Tech News, run by former NHL player, TK O’Connor, tweeted a picture of a list of specs purportedly from the Nexus 6 (Shamu) from Motorola. The specs match up with what appeared on Antutu the other day, with the shot showing a 2560×1440 resolution display, Snapdragon 805 processor with Adreno 420 GPU, 13MP Rear Camera and running Android L. He went on to say that the phone would have a 2.1MP Front-facing camera and a 5.2″ display.
https://twitter.com/tktechnews/status/500364503708491779
TK believes that the phone will be released as the Moto S on Verizon, rather than a Nexus branded phone, under the Android Silver program. Since making the assertion has gone on to obtain a picture of a screen protector, with Moto S emblazoned across the front, which he believes is for the same phone.
The screen protector has some consistencies with the look of Motorola phones coming out in the near future – namely the Moto X+1, with the cut-outs at top and bottom seemingly for front facing speakers.
It’s still somewhat of a reach, but TK believes it. If true, what this means for the rest of the world is uncertain. Here at Ausdroid, we believe that the Nexus program will continue as-is at least outside the US. It is entirely possible however that Google may trial a Nexus phone rebranded as Android Silver for Verizon in the US. Google and Verizon have had a somewhat tenuous relationship over the years, there were issues with updates being delivered to the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, the Verizon LTE Nexus 7 (2013) had a massively delayed launch and recently Verizon dropped support for the Verizon supplied LTE plan for the Chromebook Pixel.
It’s been suggested – by AndroidCentral – that Telstra could run a line of Android Silver devices, but we’ve heard no such rumblings, although it’s plausible given that Telstra were the only carrier to carry the Nexus 5 this time around.
At this stage, it’s still a rumour, so speculate away in the comments – is the Nexus ‘6’ or whatever Google decide to call the next Nexus phone be released as an Android Silver device or still be Nexus branded?
