To be fair, the excitement is in tech circles which is a relatively small portion of the market.
Generally, the overwhelming majority of handsets in at least North America are procured through one's carrier. If I'm getting a device through the carrier, not only do they not even offer Nexus devices, if they did it would seldom make economic sense: Get a subsidized $700 iPhone for $199 (so $500 of subsidy), or a subsidized Nexus for perhaps $0 (so $349 of subsidy?).
Speaking of carriers, this is why the overwhelming majority of smartphone ads for Apple are actually carried by carriers.
Curiously in the UK carrier subsidies seem to have dried up totally for the iPhone 5S at least.
To buy a 64Gb 5S from Apple for cash is £709.
To buy it on finance over two years from Apple (which is a commercial rate loan) costs around £820 in total.
To buy it from 3 is £99 plus £51 a month for 2 years. The same tariff as SIM only is £15 a month giving a total handset cost of over £960.
Essentially carriers are not just no longer subsidising the iPhone here, they're charging a greater than commercial loan rate for people buying it as part of a contract.
Except with ATT it doesn't matter if you bought your phone for 600$ or 199$ with the contract: you pay same rates. So, if you don't mind being on contract for 1.5-2 years until next upgrade, just do it. Because if you won't upgrade after 2 years you still pay same rate. If you bring in your 700 dollars phone you still pay same rate, so why pay more then? ATT and Verizon match each others prices and have no problem with monopolizing market and charging 3000% profit on SMS service
Generally, the overwhelming majority of handsets in at least North America are procured through one's carrier. If I'm getting a device through the carrier, not only do they not even offer Nexus devices, if they did it would seldom make economic sense: Get a subsidized $700 iPhone for $199 (so $500 of subsidy), or a subsidized Nexus for perhaps $0 (so $349 of subsidy?).
Speaking of carriers, this is why the overwhelming majority of smartphone ads for Apple are actually carried by carriers.