Google Play Edition Smartphones No Longer Available on the Play Store: Report

Android Police reports that the HTC One (M8) was the last Play Edition smartphone that was available via Google. A report from July last year had suggested something similar and noted that the LG G Pad 8.3 Google Play edition, Sony Z Ultra Google Play edition, and HTC One (M7) Google Play edition devices were silently removed from the Google store and their stocks have still not been replenished.

HTC had launched the Developer and Google Play editions of the One (M8) back in April last year. The HTC One (M8) Google Play Edition went up for sale on Google Play at $699 (Rs. 43,100 approximately).

Motorola had also announced its Google Play Edition of the Moto G smartphone that went up for sale via Google Play for a budget-friendly price of $179 (Rs. 11,000 approx.) for the 8GB variant, and $199 (Rs. 12,000 approx.) for the 16GB variant.

Some of the other Google Play edition devices, namely Moto G Google Play Edition, Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition, and HTC One (M7) Google Play Edition are also no longer available to buy.

Google's Play Edition devices received updates much faster than its original version, and were seen as the second batch of devices (after Nexus range) representing the stock Android OS while still providing choice of smartphones.

One of the reasons to withdraw all the Google Play Edition smartphones might be to boost the sales of the Google Nexus 6.

To refresh, Google launched the Motorola-made Nexus 6 in October last year while the handset reached Indian shores last month. The Google Nexus 6 32GB variant went on sale in India at Rs. 43,999, and the 64GB variant at Rs. 48,999. The Nexus 6 is also the platform lead device of the most recent version of Android i.e. Android 5.0 Lollipop, which comes with a fresh look thanks to Material Design and a host of new features.