Google is planning carefully to take over its program for making Nexus smartphones, following a business model set out by Apple and the iPhone.

Currently, Nexus devices are marketed under the Google name but the hardware are designed by present partners LG and Huawei, who in exchange get to place their branding on the devices as well. Now, the search engine giant expresses its desire to follow the same path of Apple in terms of treating its hardware makers, GSM Arena reported. 

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The change would effectively reduce the level of involvement of hardware partners that make the phones with Google. Google's plan is to contract companies like Foxconn to do the manufacturing, meaning you may only see Google-branding on the next Nexus smartphone. This is strikingly similar to Apple, where the iPhone design us done by in-house team, but production is being outsourced, according to ZDNet. 

The company is said to keep about 15 percent of the revenue of Nexus phone sales, and handle online sales in the devices' top 10 markets. It appears that Google does not want its revenue-generating services for high-end smartphones to be at the mercy of Apple like they are now. It means the company is going to have the only say in all matters, including the hardware

Back in November, executives of Huawei said in an interview with Android Headlines that Google makes just about all the decisions on the Nexus products, even with the hardware. Few things were decided by Huawei and the majority belongs to Google. The company has taken a similar no-partner approach for its Pixel devices, which have components from various supply chain partners and have no branding other than Google's. h

Pixel brand devices have typically come from the Chrome group, while Nexus has been from the Android Team. The branding is not all about the operating system; it is also about which team inside of Google the product comes from. The Pixel group did recently create its first Android device, the Pixel C, but that seems to be more of a last-ditch effort to get the hardware out the door. The two operating systems are reportedly merging, so it may be messier between the two brands.

The Nexus program was founded in 2010 and has had several hardware partners, including HTC, LG, Huawei, Samsung, and Motorola.