Google Nexus 4 withdrawn from sale | Hacker News Reader

Google Nexus 4 withdrawn from sale

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21 pointsanigbrowl37 comments

The steep reduction in price of the Nexus 4 earlier this year was definitely an inventory clearance effort in preparation for the Nexus 5. My friend tried to buy one but he said that lead time estimates were huge and suspected that they were out of inventory. All makes sense now with the Nexus 5 launch.

In hindsight, I have to suspect that Google and LG's plans all along was to create a phone with high specs at a low price point but restrict the supply as they "learned" to lower costs for their subsequent models. We've suspected that the Nexus 4 was most likely a loss making model for LG, but since they were rapidly losing mindshare, a loss making low'ish volume high end phone was something they were probably willing to stomach to partner with Google to get back in consumers' minds.

Maybe they'll be making profit from day 1 on the Nexus 5 this year

> In hindsight, I have to suspect that Google and LG's plans all along was to create a phone with high specs at a low price point but restrict the supply as they "learned" to lower costs for their subsequent models.

Well, unfortunately the price of a nexus 5 is much higher than the price of a nexus 4. (On release - $300 for an 8GB 4, or $350 for 16GB; $350 for a 16GB 5, or $400 for 32GB. I would happily take an 8GB option; I don't make a habit of storing anything other than pictures on my phone. Or, to get really crazy, they could allow for removable media...)

> Well, unfortunately the price of a nexus 5 is much higher than the price of a nexus 4. (On release - $300 for an 8GB 4, or $350 for 16GB; $350 for a 16GB 5, or $400 for 32GB.

What? You're saying the 16GB Nexus 4 was $350. The 16GB Nexus 5 is $349 for a vastly improved phone. How is that a "much higher" price?

Is the issue just that they don't offer an 8GB model any more? I can understand that. But comparing phone to phone with the same memory, isn't the Nexus 5 a much better deal?

> But comparing phone to phone with the same memory, isn't the Nexus 5 a much better deal?

This is getting repetitive, but why would you do that? There are no lifetime achievement awards for buying the most price-efficient phone, even if it costs you $750,000 ("but think of all the features you get!"). Compare the minimum price of $300 to the minimum price of $350. There's been a substantial increase.

The Nexus S was $400 (in some model, likely the cheapest). The 4 was a welcome signal of attention to price. This is going in the wrong direction.

They were recently selling the N4 8gb for $199 (and sold out AFAIK) and the 16gb model for $249. I was about to buy one until I got hit with ~$1500 in veterinary bills last month, and now it's too late.

I thought it was interesting that Google chose to set a price floor by withdrawing the old model from sale completely, in similar fashion to Apple's removal of the iPad 3/4 from the Apple store and maintenance of a relatively high price to the iPad 2. I haven't seen companies exercise this sort of pricing strategy as much in the past.

...Are those the numbers you meant to post? You've got the 16GB 4 and 5 priced exactly the same.

Yes, I know they're priced the same. However, you'll notice that the 8GB 5 is difficult to purchase. Why pay a substantial sum (a 17% price increase!) for a "benefit" you'll never notice?

You can get the best price-per-unit-weight on rice by buying tons of the stuff, but very few consumers are willing to do that. We prefer to buy in pounds for various reasons.

"Lower quality, lower price" is an incredibly time-honored and effective philosophy -- of buying things and of selling them.

And if you want to consider the recent pricing (I tend to agree that the 4s were priced to move, so it's not a great comparison)? The 4 is a clear winner. There is no way I'd voluntarily pay $350 for a new nexus 5 instead of $200 for a new nexus 4.

For one thing there is no 8GB Nexus 5. For another, anyone following Google's Nexus product lines knew that the $199 and $249 price points were obviously clearance prices to move the last bit of inventory out of the pipeline and make way for the Nexus 5.

It's silly you'd even argue this considering there is no other phone you can buy for $350 that is anywhere near as capable as the Nexus 5. It is competing with phones with an MSRP of over $500.

Let's compare what you're telling me with what I wrote:

> For one thing there is no 8GB Nexus 5.

"you'll notice that the 8GB 5 is difficult to purchase"

You seem to be agreeing with me.

> anyone following Google's Nexus product lines knew that the $199 and $249 price points were obviously clearance prices to move the last bit of inventory out of the pipeline

"I tend to agree that the 4s were priced to move, so it's not a great comparison"

It's very difficult to persuade someone that their views are faulty by only telling them things they've already stated themselves. Where are you trying to go with this?

I've got two 16GB N4's I'm trying to sell to fund a purchase of some N5 new shiny. $250 apiece. I hope I can still get that much out of them. :)

I think the price for the Nexus devices is excellent, since you get pure Android and a factory unlocked device from the start.

kevnixucs. You ran afoul of a mod on a bad day and you've been hellbanned (ie. all your posts are insta marked dead but you can't see)

Turn your aggression dial from 6 down to 2 and make a new account and you'll be fine.

I thought the Nexus 4 had been unavailable for a while now?

honestly, if google would make a nexus 3 I might consider it. I have a samsung nexus S, and it's on the large side of what I am comfortable with.

On that note, I have to wonder if the buyers of these super-sized Android phones are like 80% male or what. Women have much smaller hands than men. This hit home for me when I bought winter gloves in a "women's extra-large", because the store was out of "men's small". They're two different labels for the same size! For me, the Nexus 4 works fine, but if it were any bigger, or my hands any smaller, it'd be awful hard to use one-handed. Five inch phones seem to be excluding half the market.

I seem to see more women than men with really huge phones like the Galaxy Note series. Perhaps because they are more likely to have a bag to carry it around with, rather than needing to keep it in a pocket. Presumably they just use them two handed.

I was a bit concerned when I got my wife her Nexus 4 that she would find it too large, but she hasn't said a thing about the size.

just to point out -- while the marketing is "4-inch screen is now 5-inch screen", the ergonomics aren't so bad. The 5 is several millimeters taller and only half a millimeter wider than the 4. But for holding the thing in my hand, I only really care about the width.

Yeah but your thumbs or fingers still need to traverse 5inches of screen because thats the tappable area now.

I mostly tap on the keyboard? I do use an app that sometimes requires clicking in the top right corner of the screen, but I already use my other hand to do that. Actually, I already use my other hand for the keyboard as well.

i suspect there's also a preference among men to put phones in pockets while women may often carry handbags..

Unfortunately the electronics manufacturers (and Google apparently) are, well, not very thoughtful when it comes to phone design. It's like they don't really know what else to do, so they've settled on simple-minded memes like "bigger = better!!!"

Often this is sort of a reasonable plan in general... faster CPUs and more memory are usually helpful (if you can keep battery usage reasonable).

But when applied uncritically and universally, without much judgement or thought, in a mad rush to out-spec the other guy ("Now Double The Size of Our Competitor!!!!"), this just leads to mediocrity, where everything apparently has great specs but nobody really likes them very much...

They're making them bigger b/c that's the cultural preference in much of Asia, not b/c they have some flighty notion of bigger=better.

Same reason iPhone got bigger in a recent major version upgrade. This has been discussed b/f at HN.

Or perhaps people just genuinely want larger phones. Samsung's Note series sold very well. I know I personally would love the bigger screen of the Nexus 5 over my current Galaxy Nexus.

I can't think of anything worse than having a tiny screen like the iphone.

I wish it wasn't the case, as I'd prefer they make smaller devices too, but it's not a simple minded meme. It's market research.

Individual Android phones have had better customer ratings than the iPhones since the S3 and Note 2 (amongst others). And one of the key features the owners report as liking is the larger screens.

Apple prefer to use ratings like JD Power, that group by manufacturer, as that helps those who only target the high-end. Though even on that metric various competitors have gained swiftly and Samsung tablets scored slightly higher than Apple in the latest results.

well I have to admit, I assumed that the bigger screen size meant bigger form factor but I looked it up and the nexus 5 is a smidge smaller than the nexus 4 in the dimensions that matter to me (might be thinner, didn't check). Still bigger than the nexus S, though.

Take a look at the Moto X... go put one in your hands. It has a different form factor and it feels much smaller than it is. Holding it I was (and still am) strongly tempted to move off my Nexus devices, and being so close to Google I am hoping it will get updates very quick.

I wonder if battery life is related as well. Nexus 4 battery life is poor compared to iPhone even though the Nexus is much bigger and hence carries a bigger battery. Having a larger form factor can mask some of this power efficiency deficiency.

Larger phones fit bigger batteries.

The nexus 4 had terrible battery life.

You see, Google does not cater to small groups. Fit into the middle 90% or go home.

It does, else how else do you explain accesability option. Besides many small groups make up a karge percentage overall depending on how fine you dice.

Language options being another cavert in your point about small groups. Certainly translate caters for more than 100 languages alone and you can bet this other 10% fit into some of those.

Nothing pleases everybody. Why else do we have exception handerling in programming code :).

The Nexus 5 denotes its hardware generation, not the screen size. So, technically the Galaxy Nexus would've been the "Nexus 3".

In the same way that the Nexus 7 denotes its hardware generation, and not the screen size?

So we should all buy the Nexus 10 then which will be available around 2019?

Accessing this from Australia it still shows as available and you can order it. Must be geography specific (presumably, while inventory still lasts).

Yeah I have a hard time reconciling the title with the button in the middle of my screen:

    Add to cart - AU$299.00

I clicked it and now I have a Nexus 4 in my cart.

This is one of those rare times in which people in countries that are slow to get the Nexus 5 will most likely be able to carry on buying the Nexus 4 longer. Just a thought.

Also I do wonder how many out there waitied for the Nexus 5 and then thought Hmmm not huge jump from Nexus 4 given the nice price the N4 is at currently and now maybe regretting not getting one. Too me for the price difference the Nexus 4 does seem the more appealing, albiet a non option now, at least new.

So every time they introduce a new model, they have to change the screen diagonal? This doesn't seem like a well-thought-out naming scheme.

Yeah, I know, when they run out of numbers it'll just go to "Nexus Awesome" or "Nexus Super Alpha" or something. You've got to at least give Apple credit for giving each generation of mobile hardware a clear, distinctive name. Oddly enough, their laptop/desktop hardware does the opposite--the new MacBook Pro is officially just "the new MacBook Pro," and it's left to the fans to figure out generations.

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