The Google Play Edition Is Now 'Dead'

The Google Play Edition program of stock OEM flagships appears to have been given the chop

It’s not such a big deal for those of us outside the US, but according to reports Google has axed the Google Play Edition branch of devices available on its webstore inside the land associated with star spangled banners and bald eagles.

To recap, the Google Play Edition line was essentially the product of an agreement between Google and several key manufacturing partners, including Samsung and HTC, amongst others. It meant that flagship Android devices, such as the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S4, could be purchased directly from Google Play with no third party interface overlay. Instead they carried a completely stock build of Android - just as you’d find on Google’s own Nexus devices, and this also meant timely updates to the latest software versions and unlocked bootloaders. Once again, however, the Google Play Edition line-up (or GPE, as it has come to be called) was only available in the US.

Emphasis on “was”. According to Ars Technica, a glance at Google Play in the States earlier this week showed GPE devices listed as “no longer available for sale.” The publication contacted Google for comment, but true to form the big G remained silent. While that means there’s nothing official just yet, Ars Technica has reached the only logical conclusion; that GPE is dead.

The reason that verdict doesn’t seem so wild or far-fetched is because GPE appears to have been winding down for a while now; there hasn’t been a new GPE model device since Spring 2014, and while a Samsung Galaxy S5 GPE model was heavily leaked and rumoured it never actually showed up on Google Play. Likewise, Google had at one point alluded to expanding the GPE availability outside of the US, of course that never happened either.

“The program hit its peak early last year, when a full half-dozen devices were listed all at once: theGalaxy S4, the HTC Ones M7 and M8, the first-generation Moto G, the Sony Z Ultra, and theLG G Pad 8.3,” writes Ars Technica’s Andrew Cunningham.

“Like doomed kids making their way through Willy Wonka's factory, they silently dropped out one by one. Now they're all gone, and it looks a whole lot like the program has wrapped up.”

The report goes on to outline some very good reasons for the possible demise of GPE, but the most compelling really is how the handsets compared to Google’s own Nexus devices in terms of price and specs. These handsets occupied the same store space and featured similar specs as Nexus phones but crucially cost about twice as much - market forces played out in much the way you might expect and GPE sales were lacklustre.

“OEM hardware was often superior to Nexus hardware in terms of build quality, camera quality, and battery life, but not superior enough to tip the scales for most buyers,” said Cunningham.

“In a market more accustomed to paying the full unlocked price for smartphones, the GPe phones might still have found a foothold, but they were only ever distributed in the subsidy-happy US market. Next to “$200” versions of what looked like the same phones to casual observers, the GPe phones were hobbled out of the gate.” In other words, had Google rolled the GPE program out in Europe and Asia, it might not have tanked so hard.

For now it seems like GPE is gone, but perhaps it will return one day. Hopefully next time it’ll appear in a few other regions as well as Google’s home territory.