Google’s Nexus 7 not as popular as iPad, Kindle Fire

Mountain View’s Google-branded tablet may not be as popular as Apple’s iPad or Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but the company did manage to sell a very respectable 4.5-4.6 million Nexus 7 devices since launching last summer.

The latest numbers were crunched and compiled by mobile industry analyst Benedict Evans who reviewed sales data from Asus, the manufacturer of the Nexus 7.

As noted above, while sales of the tablet were respectable, they didn’t manage to hit anywhere near Apple’s iPad Mini, which likely shipped around 10 million units. Plus, Amazon’s new Kindle Fire lineup probably outsold the Nexus 7 as well.

Google’s Nexus 7 is currently available in two primary configurations: 16GB WiFi for $199 and 32GB WiFi for $249. Of course, there is also the 32GB HSPA+ (T-Mobile and AT&T) for a cool $300.

The versatile Android tablet has been spotted running a number of alternative operating systems, including OpenWebOS, Ubuntu, Bodhi Linux, and Chromium.

The next iteration of Mountain View’s flagship tablet is expected to debut during Google I/O 2013 and is likely to feature a higher-res display, faster processor and run Android Key Lime Pie.