The Google Play Edition devices are an intriguing prospect for Android purists everywhere. Marrying the power and quality of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) created hardware with a stock Android operating system is a drool-worthy affair for some, and the recent releases of the LG G Pad 8.3 GPE and Sony Z Ultra GPE have further filled out Google‘s impressive line of stock Android devices to the point where they now have a device offering at almost every major screen-size for both smartphones and tablets. Like the previous GPE devices, the HTC One and Galaxy S4, the G Pad and Z Ultra are only available on the American Google Play Store, which has once again revived the question: why aren’t the Google Play Edition devices available in countries other than America?
Part of the reason these devices aren’t available anywhere else would intuitively be rooted in supply and demand; Google must suspect (or have researched) that demand outside of America is high enough for them to make any sort of an impact or turn any profit.
In terms of supply, I’m not going to pretend to know how Google’s unique and intricate supply lines work, but I would have expected that these supply lines would be very similar to the ones Google uses to distribute its Nexus devices to the entire world. If Google itself doesn’t handle the distribution and it is instead the manufacturers’ responsibility, surely they could supply them to the regions that they already sell products in. Again, I don’t know how these operations actually work as the mere existence of GPE devices already blurs the lines between responsibility and liability for the companies involved, but it’s food for thought as to why exactly Google doesn’t offer these devices worldwide or even just a service to ship them around the globe.
If Google is worried about demand, they just need to spend a few minutes reading comments on any Android news site to see that people do want these devices. I won’t say that these people are a majority, but they are definitely the target demographic of these kinds of devices, and a lot of them don’t live in America. You may argue that these people would have gone to extreme lengths to get these devices anyway, and a lot will have, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.
It’s mainly a matter of convenience and it’s times like these when we wonder what’s actually motivating these decisions; perhaps Google doesn’t earn any money from Google Play edition devices, or manufacturers have only agreed to sell a certain number of these devices. Whatever the reason, it would be nice to know why the rest of the world has been left out to dry again.
What do you think about the Google Play Edition devices: would you like the see them available away from America? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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