Most people were pretty caught off guard when Google announced some ridiculously low pricing for the Nexus 4. At $299/$349 in the U.S. and Canada, €299/€349 in Europe and £239/£279 in the U.K. with international availability at launch, it seemed like Google had done everything right this time around.
On November 13, the Google Play store page for the Nexus 4 will go live with shipping availability to the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Spain and Australia. For the countries not listed above, the pricing structure is a bit more up in the air. In its press release, Google notes that “offline availability” is coming to Europe, Central/South Americas, Asia, CIS and the Middle East starting at the end of November, but gives no pricing or retailer information.
We’re hearing different things from retailers and users around the world, and it looks like the pricing for countries outside of Google Play’s direct shipping reach will be paying a pretty penny. Retailers in Italy, Austria and Denmark have reported that LG’s direct MSRP (suggested pricing) will be much higher -- somewhere in the €549 to €599 range -- than Google’s. We're already seeing that a Spanish retailer Phone House (counterpart of Carphone Warehouse in the U.K.) has even pulled out of offering the Nexus 4 all together because the pricing direct from LG will be so much steeper than expected.
It should be noted that much of this is out of Google's control, as LG is the one selling the devices to these retailers. Google's ability to sell directly to specific countries also requires a whole host of regulatory approval and certification that just may not be possible in certain areas (at this time). It’s understandable that Google’s own offering would be much cheaper when considering that it can go straight to the consumer with no storefront and low overhead, but seeing this high of a premium put on the devices being sold with retail partners is a tough one to swallow.
Prices will inevitably drop once importers are able to get their hands on units in the countries served by Google Play, similar to what we saw with drops in prices of Galaxy Nexuses, but no one knows how long that will take. Hopefully things will clear up and pricing will become more than a rumor in the coming weeks.
Source: AndroidOS.in; The Next Web
Reader comments
Outside of Google Play's reach, Nexus 4 pricing may not be so sweet
Hey can anyone enlighten me. Im from Denmark and will be travelling to the USA at the end of November. Would i be able to purchase it of the Google store in the USA. I will be in Chigago for 2 weeks or so. How long does it take for them to send it you think and can i buy it off the google store in the USA with an international credit card ?
Thanks
Are you coming to visit someone? Do you have friends/family here? Even a business contact might do you a favor of that kind. Just give them the money and have them buy it for you. If you are coming in a couple weeks, have your people pre-order it, they should have it before you even get here. If you do it that way, you certainly could get one.
I bet there would be a problem with having an international billing address but shipping to an address in the USA (appears like fraud or stolen card).
"Google's ability to sell directly to specific countries also requires a whole host of regulatory approval and certification that just may not be possible in certain areas (at this time)"
- so how is Amazon doing their business? How is this possible that Amazon can ship thousands of items to virtually anywhere in the world and Google can't?
I was right there with you guys & girls as a Nexus owner. Until the day my Nexus S 4G started suffering from persistent random reboots & slowing down to the point of being unusable. Couldn't get the damn thing to stabilize. I tried factory resets & everything? No go. My Nexus was headed for the Android final resting place.
So I had to walk into my Sprint store on October 29th & make a choice. Galaxy Nexus was already a year old so that's a pass. No availability for the Nexus 4 on Sprint. But there was a Samsung Galaxy Note II with LTE, 5.5" 720p screen, 2GB of RAM, 1.6GHz Exynos Quad-core, & immediate accessories. I voted with my wallet.
Sorry Google & LG but I believe the Nexus 4 is a tactical error & a mistake. As the rest of the world dives into LTE in 2013? They're going to notice how saturated & bogged down 3G networks are. Slower data speeds & congested networks are going to be a fun experience in any country in the world. I notice it all the time here in Dallas thanks to all those iPhone users. At least with a premium level price point for LTE service & LTE devices, it will keep the masses away for awhile.
As for some of you commenting that the U.S. gets things first? Not so much. Most Android devices gain European & Asian availability way ahead of the United States. Most Android devices get their upgrades much faster by months in European & Asian networks. The U.S. carrier system slows things down here dramatically. If you're not on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile? You're generally get less choice & the quality of service degrades. Verizon tends to lock things down & be super slow on updates. AT&T just doesn't give a damn. Sprint just takes forever to test items. T-Mobile just doesn't have the customers to be a factor yet but that could change if the MetroPCS merger is approved. The grass is not always greener on the U.S side.
Take me to us, right fuckin now, you all who was born in us are very very very lucky...your country is always become the first country to get it
I hope Google will extend his service further in Europe... I live in Belgium and 3 of my neighbouring countries can get the device at the cheap price (Germany, UK, France). To bad Belgium and The Netherlands are such small countries :/
why dont u just take a short trip to anyone of those countries and buy it there then ?
There was no such issue with Nexus 7.. this is why LG Sucks! Greedy bastards!
The nexus 7(16Gb) is 340$ in Sweden so it's not just LG.
Nexus 4 is at 625$
Small country = high price
but then I pay 23$/month for 100/10 mps fiber (IP-phone included)so it's not all bad.
Gonna buy myself one when I visit the US. 299 dollars is way cheaper then 299 Euro. 299 dollars is like 233 euros where 299 euros in Dollar are around 385 dollars. So i gonna wait until I am in the usa same with the nexus tablet it is cheaper in the usa.
Unless you have a friend in the U.S. that you can ship to their address, you won't get that $299/$349 price. T-Mobile will be selling it in retail stores, but that's your only option. Unfortunately T-Mo will be charging $499 off contract for it.
Yes I have an address in the US so I am not worried about this fact.
No, this is an American company being a typical American company. It's not hard to offer overseas shipping on play.google.com, or any website, for that matter. Even the countries who do have access are paying more for the same phone.
You do realize that LG(a Korean company) is setting the overpriced €549 to €599 MSRP of the N4? That typical American company is still offering it to the countries it can via the Play store. I'm sure they know how to ship internationally and if they could offer it to the entire world at $299, they would...
You guys saying this is not LGs fault are delusional. Google is selling this device for what it's worth. Explain to me how a Nexus 7 with 4G radios can possibly cost $299 while LG is selling a device with a much smaller screen for twice the price? The answer is that the $600 price of today's smartphone is completely fraudulent and was thought up by the manufacturers and carriers! How much can a damn HSPA+ or LTE radio cost? I'm betting its not $300 on top of an identical unit with just WIFI! The entire cheap tablet market is changing what people see phones as worth. LG is living in the world of yesterday.
Dude, the idea behind google selling these devices (at these crazy-low prices) is because they expect to make money continuously in the play store. They are going to make their money selling: movies, music, books, magazine subscriptions, and high-end games. They are not trying to make any money on the devices themselves. They are trying to get people in the habit of going to the Play store to buy their entertainment. Google is selling the hardware for no profit (like amazon is doing with the kindle tablets). Since people are going to consume far more media on their tablets, the tablet hardware is discounted more than the phone hardware.
If you were google, would you expect to sell more books, magazine subscriptions, movies and high-end games on tablets or on a phone?
And now to address the core of all this whining and displaced anger at LG. The retailers around the world are not going to make a dime of media sales in the play-store like Google is. Therefore other retailers will not match google's steeply discounted price.
Here's how the world works for a product like this.
1. Producer makes a product. (in this case LG)
2. The producer sells to distributors (distributors do bulk shipping and storage around the world).
3. The distributors sell to retailers (retailers get paid to be screamed at by irrational people).
4. The retailers sell to consumers. (consumers are the irrational screaming people)
LG only gets what the distributor bought it for. If one consumer pays a retailer $600 and another consumer pays a different retailer $300, LG does not make one penny more. If fact LG would prefer to have all these phones selling at $300. Why? Because they would sell millions more phones to the distributors, which is how they make their money.
If Google had announced the N4 in the play-store for $599... all this anger at LG would have never happened. do...you...get...it... yet?
Not surprised here at all. When the G-Nexus was $349 on play store here in Canada every carrier was charging $600+ outright and it wasn't available for order in Canada from the play store. So yeah the N4 is gonna be a great phone for a great price. Sure it may not be a Note II with LTE or the HTC DLX but its an excellent bloat free phone considering the overall value of a true world phone.
Hello, if i go to the USA and buy the N4, i will be able to use it in my country isn't? Do you know if the nexus 4 will be sell in a retail store?
T-Mobile is going to sell it. It should be same as any nexus4.
Yes if you buy one in the U.S. you can use it on any GSM carrier in the world.
Unfortunately for people in your situation, your only retail choice will be T-Mobile stores, which are going to be selling the device for $499, not the $349 that the Play Store is selling.
Oh my god. If Nexus 16GB price goes $500 or more, I will not buy it, instead of that I'll go for Samsung Galaxy S3 or Note 2 and enjoy the expandable memory and removable battery advantages. Yes there are can be little price increase in outside of the Play store, but this much of price increase ($200) not good. So what happen to the Google's android ecosystem? :P
There's no such a issue Nexus7, why is that?
There are many reasons for select this device its low cost, it's the device that receive latest android updates.
Given the fact that there is no content ecosystem to speak of outside of the USA , it's clear that Google doesn't really intend for its products and services to be sold and used anywhere but in the USA. It's all part of the plan.
Most of this countries can take advantage of websites like eBay and amazon right? I mean yea that might not be ideal but it might be the cheapest way to go for them!
Question is: Will amazon price be close to the play store price? Cause if they are not, they will not even bother trying to sell the phone.
Some people just don't get it. Android is the best, most versatile, and convenient platform available. Samsung is a bloated format of android. The Nexus 4 is a way for the pure android loyalists to have the latest and greatest hardware in hand. I am a Motorola user. And no matter how bad I want the razr hd. I am buying the 4 to have Google support and updates immediately. Though, I do have a razr More that I got my girlfriend. So I will still be able to toy with my favorite hardware. But Android is nowhere near dead.
"[...]I got my girlfriend. So I will still be able to toy with my favorite hardware."
I do enjoy that raunchy stuff too.
android is dead until the next samsung phone. but the s3 and note 2 will hold ya'll over. windows phone 8 for me!
Umm how is android dead?
He's probably one of the "no LTE means epic fail Google needs to die" emo crybabies. They need to STFU and GTFO. They're making Android users seem whinier than iMorons.
If this is true I'm definitely ordering mine from the Play Store and get it shipped through JetCarrier like I did with the Nexus 7. I can live with having to use an adapter on the US style charger.
If you get the wireless charger compatible with your country it won't matter what phone you have! Yay!
Google doesn't push the Nexus too hard. They don't market it too hard. Why? Because they don't want to cannibalize their hardware partners devices. The Nexus phone is the inexpensive developer/hacker/reference design phone to facilitate the growth of the platform and ecosystem. The point of the Nexus phone is not to make money selling a lot of hardware. The point is to help spur the platform and innovation. The masses aren't going to buy the Nexus and that's just fine with Google.
I am afraid that strategy changed with the launch of Nexus 7. The Nexus 10 is also aggressively priced for mass market and not just developers. Google gave enough time for the OEMs to get their act together and produce a low cost good quality tablet. Now Google is forced to launch their own Nexus or Android risk becoming irrelevant in the tablet space. But I am surprised by the aggressive pricing of the Nexus 4 given that Android phones are doing amazingly well. To keep Samsung in check ?
Wow, LG just can't catch a break... This phone's not even out yet and it already has lots of criticism, signal quality concerns due to panel/battery design, now price mayhem across territories?! I'm so happy I just got my Note 2 :)
Who cares. Love the the USA. Its the best. :-)
:-) true... but i want everyone in the world to enjoy the freedom of Nexus. even the price. I understand the frustration
Nationalism at its smuggest. Hooray.
People like you need to be gassed.
It's people like you with comments like these that result in Americans being hated in many parts of the globe. gtfo
"Love ******. It's the best."
If you can't replace ****** with the name of your country, you need to move. If you have a problem with somebody else replacing ****** with the name of their country, you need to grow up.
Makes a ton of sense. LG can't subsidize the cost of the device with ad revenue, so they, like any other OEM, have to make their profit on the front end.
The interesting thing to watch here will be what happens to the market for Android devices going forward if the popularity of Nexus devices takes off. OEMs and carriers aren't going to be happy with the idea of Google undercutting them on price.
Nexus phones will never take off in America without lte. That's just the way it is.
Your right, but I guess Google is betting on a two year plan, first spread the name across the world and let blogs "swear" by the Nexus brand(as a way of advertisement), so basically anyone who looks at anything Android related, their will be a reference to the Nexus brand. They go through the "year" and sell millions of devices. Then once the carriers "know what is good", Google swoops in and have them sign contracts with the Nexus brand(Of course to leave it untouched). Then next time around they will release it with LTE.
That is not true at all.
I would like to know how you worked this out. What percentage of people can receive LTE currently and what percentage of phone owners use LTE?
I don't know these figures but I'm sure it's not the larger majority. LTE would have been appreciated but with Verizon and Sprint sullying the Nexus brand last time, no way could this be allowed to continue.
Because the lack of LTE totally killed the first five versions of the iPhone. Poor Apple nearly went bankrupt as a resul...oh, wait. o_O
I swear, the LTE emo crybabies are getting too stupid for words. When people realize they can buy an off-contract phone with top shelf specs for half the price of a comparable model and run it for half the monthly costs of contract deals, the trade-off of no LTE will be an acceptable compromise, especially when they have an extra $50 per month in their pockets compared to feeding Big Red.
To be fair....LTE wasn't really widespread until earlier this year. Even if they would have put it on the 4S they would have been on the front end of the market.
You sir, are correct. People are shunning the Nexus 4 for the mere fact that LTE is not included. All the while LTE is not yet available in their area. LTE is not yet rolled out in my area so it makes no sense to sign a 2 year contract on a LTE phone that I can't use. Pay for LTE service just because the device is capable? No thanks.
My plan is to get the Nexus 4 (and feel good about not signing a 2 year contract), hop over to a pre-paid carrier like Straight Talk and enjoy my monthly savings.
Once LTE is available widespread without gaps or shoddy coverage, I'll consider getting an LTE device.
Right now GSM is the world standard. Not LTE. This will change down the road but not for some time to come.
LTE is based on the GSM standard, and is THE worldwide standard for 4G. That's why LTE has SIM-cards and is open, unless you stack it upon CDMA.
I completely agree...This phone is GSM and the GSM providers are barely offering LTE. I think it's in it's early stages still, with that said, I think this phone will match the perfect match for the new Solavei service. Can't wait! p.s. I think people are slowly exiting contracts, so unlock phones will be the new standard in the coming years.
I use WiFi way more than cellular data anyway. I'm definitely getting this phone and I live in an area where higher data speeds come last.
That'll be ok because the rest of the world and 2 US carriers follow the GSM standard. If the majority uses GSM, Google is pretty much safe. It's high time for Verizon and Sprint to join the world instead of using their closed systems. LTE is still nascent, HSPA+ is fine for most people, LTE isn't the end all and be all. Most countries still haven't had full roll-out of LTE, Canada is rolling it out pretty fast (61% of the entire population lives within an LTE zone) but it'll still take time. Other countries may have smaller coverage.