17 replies to this topic

[hecatae]

The MoDaCo News Team are starting to see reports that independent retailers like Phone House in Europe are refusing to stock the Nexus 4 as LG wont let them have it at the Google Play Store price.

Phone House España, the Spanish arm of Carphone Warehouse, has stated on it's Facebook page that it is refusing to stock the Nexus 4, as LG want to charge a Recommended Retail Price of €599 Euros (£479.58 according to xe.com) per device.

Google Play mentions this regarding purchasing devices:

Quote

Devices on Google Play is currently only available to customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.

So if you don't live in these countries, you can currently expect to pay nearly twice the cost for a Nexus 4, compared to someone who lives in the above countries and can purchases their phone from the Play Store. This also explains the crazy contract prices we are seeing for the Nexus 4, just because you have not purchased directly from the Google Play Store.

Are you affected by this? let us know below!

[via: Phone House España]

Click here to view the item

[3shirts]

I am very fortunate to be in the UK and able to purchase from the Play Store.  This seems very immoral behaviour from LG and there is no way I'd be buying if I could not get it through Google.
Assuming they aren't making a loss from Play Store sales, this increased price outside it is just profiteering.

[jeddy1]

At this price i would get it just with 32 GB internal memory ...

[Chrisund123]

I'll buy two, and stick one on eBay with international shipping - make an absolute killing!!

[Pondlife]

Am sure it's just a muck up in communication somewhere, cpw contract pricing of the N4 in uk seems rather inflated anyway..

[comicbookguy]

So its a ploy by Google to create lots of sim only customers before Xmas  and reduce carrier power then....

[jonmall1441]

I am one of the people affected by this. I am either getting it through a contact in the UK or by getting a UK address from my Post Office and purchasing it online (using a proxy or VPN).

This seems like a very dodgy move by LG. I would understand a €50 premium (shops need to make a profit), but double the price? No thank you.

[comicbookguy]

Its hardly "amoral" for a manufacturer to quote/sell at an RRP while one vendor sells at a heavily discounted price! Its just unusual to hear about the discounted price first, before release......

Its also far from unusual for a vendor to get heavy bulk discount, and I'm guessing Google bought a lot of handsets.

[everett_psycho]

comicbookguy, on 05 November 2012 - 04:07 PM, said:

So its a ploy by Google to create lots of sim only customers before Xmas  and reduce carrier power then....

I assume they would want to do this to take operators out of the equation and stop them delaying any updates.

Still it's a bit mad, to have such a big difference, I'll be spreading the word to any friends up for renewal to suggest sim free as an option instead of blowing to much on a monthly contract.

[comicbookguy]

everett_psycho, on 05 November 2012 - 07:46 PM, said:

I assume they would want to do this to take operators out of the equation and stop them delaying any updates.

Still it's a bit mad, to have such a big difference, I'll be spreading the word to any friends up for renewal to suggest sim free as an option instead of blowing to much on a monthly contract.

I did it 2 and a half years ago after my upgrades went to 2 years. Best thing I ever did, except maybe converting to Android.....

[Liamness]

Google aren't playing by the usual rules of the carriers. Usually handset makers are discouraged to cheaply sell unlocked phones directly to customers; this is why you can only buy a sim-free iPhone 4S for just about what it would cost over the length of a 12 month contract, for example. It's a relatively new paradigm, buying an expensive smartphone upfront, then getting a cheap monthly contract, but probably one that will work out better for the consumer, making their choices more transparently and switching easier. It does seem a little unfair on those who don't have access to Google's grand experiments though... as other have said they will have the option of fishing around on ebay, if they aren't bothered about warranties and so on.

[Davidoff59]

The consumers finally get to hold the clean end of the stick while carriers hold the shitty end of it.
I hope the sim free version sells by the train load

[life58]

comicbookguy, on 05 November 2012 - 06:23 PM, said:

Its also far from unusual for a vendor to get heavy bulk discount, and I'm guessing Google bought a lot of handsets.

Does this mean we can get the phone at Google store only till stocks last?  How long will the £270 price stick?

[Liamness]

Nah, it'll be like the Galaxy Nexus. They'll maintain stock and keep selling it until a successor comes out. By 'bulk' he means they'll have committed to buy a very large amount of phones from LG, numbering in the millions.

[comicbookguy]

plus possible financial help with redesign and retooling for the existing LG Optimus G innards

[Dieter Schroeder]

Nexus 4 16GB will be sold for 395,-€ at German MediaMarkt from december, 15th on.

[Igniztion]

It's listed for ~3900 NOK in the cheapest stores in Norway. That's about £430...

AFAIK the UK VAT is 20% and the Norwegian one is 25%, so the price diff is obviously far more than taxes.

[vareBlade]

Even though i want N4 like crazy, i would never buy it if its sold like that (300$ for the "1st-class" countries and 500+$ for the rest of the world).