Carphone Warehouse lauds Nexus 7 while eagerly eying iPad Mini

Asus’ Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet is “the best selling Android tablet ever”, at least according to Carphone Warehouse.

Incidentally, Google has now posted the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update that triggered headlines last week but failed to show up.

Not ‘best selling tablet’, you’ll note - the Nexus has some way to go to match iPad sales, we reckon, but it’s interesting that the Asus-made gadget has come so far in just three months or so.

CW sells a range of Android tablets, from Samsung’s various offerings to Sony’s Tablet S and Asus’ Transformer series. The closest in price to the Nexus is Samsung’s 7in Tab 2, and that will set you back £200 - £41 more than the Nexus 7.

Of course, CW didn’t provide sales figures - or even relative shares - so we can’t tell whether the Nexus outsold its rivals by a big margin or a small one. And there’s no way of saying to what extent it’s eating into iPad sales.

Certainly, El Reg’s barometer of technology usage, the London Underground, suggests not. We have seen tube riders gazing at Nexus 7 tablets on their way into work of a morning, but we see many more Kindles. And while iPad usage at such times has been relatively low - ten-inch tablets are clearly not as convenient to use on a crowded underground train - we have of a late seen a big increase in the number of folks reading books, newspapers and such on their Apple tablets.

All of which points to a huge latent demand for a smaller iPad, which is now expected to be finally made public on 23 October. Early hints at pricing point to £249 - not the £199 which will make it a no brainer for many buyers, but not out of the ballpark. Even at the higher price, expect a lot of these to be shifted before Christmas.

As Graham Stapleton, CE’s Chief Commercial Officer, said in a statement: "It's clear that there is a massive demand amongst our customer base for smaller tablets.” He was referring to the Nexus 7, but the same will be true of the smaller iPad.

Ditto Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, and Barnes & Noble’s upcoming Nook HD tablet, all of which will be slugging it out with the Asus tablet - shortly to be upgraded to 32GB, by various accounts - and the iPad for UK Christmas spending. ®