Only yesterday we posted on Harvey Norman making the Nexus 4 available from 1 February in its stores nation-wide.
We’ve now received a media release from LG confirming this development and their motivation for doing it — basically, there’s huge demand for the Nexus 4 in Australia and they want to meet that demand head on.
We also understand from Harvey Norman that plans will start at $35/m, not bad value if you ask me.
The press release, as provided, follows:
LG Delivers Sought After Nexus 4 Handset to Australian Retail Stores
Exclusive LG and Harvey Norman partnership announced
SYDNEY, January 24, 2013 – LG Electronics (LG) has announced that the widely anticipated Nexus 4 will be exclusively available through Harvey Norman stores on Optus mobile plans from February 1.
A design collaboration between LG and Google, the LG Nexus 4 was officially launched on Google Play in November 2012, and quickly proved to be a hit after selling out within 20 minutes.
Global demand for the smartphone continues to grow, and offering the handset in Australian stores now will give sales another boost.
The Nexus 4 brings together LG’s advanced hardware design, including Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon™ S4 Pro processor, for speed and power. Featuring 2GB of RAM and the latest version of Android® (Jelly Bean), the Nexus 4 is the snappiest Nexus smartphone to date.
“The Nexus 4 is a great example of how LG’s state of the art hardware is innovating in the smartphone market with Google choosing to be its latest hardware partner,” said Lambro Skropidis, General Marketing Manager at LG Australia.
“The response in Australia has been overwhelmingly positive on Google Play already, and we know our Harvey Norman partnership will create even greater demand.”
Stock will be available for an outright purchase of $496 in all Harvey Norman stores and on an Optus plan in selected stores. Pricing will be dependent on the customer’s choice of Optus plan; details of the suggested plans and pricing can be found in store and online at www.harveynorman.com.au.
Customers can pre-order now for stock available on the 1st February.
How about supplying the Australian Play store with Nexus 4 phones. They were available for about 20 minutes on launch day and not since then. F**king ridiculous.
your latest ausdroid podcast, and every youtube video is always PRIVATE. whats the point of making it PRIVATE so nobody can watch it?
Screw you LG for being greedy &%*#*%*s and not stocking the Google Play Store and instead stocking your pockets. Google made a big mistake using you
Supply and demand buddy. At $400, the nexus 4 is a steal. Frankly it is at least a $700 phone. If you slapped an apple logo on it, it would probably well for over $1k.
Does ‘exclusive’ partnership mean that the AU Play Store won’t be restocked? Or just ‘exclusive’ bricks and mortar?
this is what I’m keen to find out also
so by retail stores they mean HN… I fricken hate HN… So can we anticipate stock will reappear on Google Play or will we just get screwed again by having to pay through the nose at some retailer? Wasn’t that part of the marketing strategy – ‘the playground is open’?? Meaning we could be free from carriers, but obviously not shonky retailers.
If it gets back on the Google Play store soon all will be forgiven. I thought I was over being angry about the Nexus 4 but the rage is still there I guess.
I will NOT be paying any more than $399 for a 16GB LG Nexus 4, even if that means waiting a little longer until the Google Play store is back in stock. These markups by both online and instore retailers are REALLY starting to piss me off… I am actually kinda hoping that before I get a chance to purchase a 16GB LG Nexus 4, some more news and info comes out about either the next Nexus device, or the Motorola/Google X… If these devices look promising, I will skip the 16GB LG Nexus 4 altogether…
I was wanting one but I feel both Google and lg have lost any cred over this. I’ll be looking at Ubuntu on my galaxy nexus. The final straw is Harvey Norman exclusive. So they had stock just held it to get more. #notHappyGoogle #parForTheCourseLG
Just pre ordered one and received an email shortly after saying
“We’re experiencing a delay with your order. We estimate that your item(s) listed below will be ready in approximately 10 days, at which point we’ll contact you.”
What this says to me is that LG has held out on stock, would not Google be ordering everything it can get it’s hands on ?
Either Google just used it as a marketing ploy for LG to sell directly via HN style outlets at a higher price.
Either Google or LG are telling big fat stories here because it does not add up.
Why no Telstra.
Telstra don’t want it unless it has 4G
4G is just a waste of battery. DC-HSDPA+ is faster than most ADSL2+ connections in poor reception areas.
Telling my brother this, he’s been after one for months and his phone is slowly dying, all he wants/needs is a nexus. Hopefully they stay in stock long enough
If it’s true, I don’t care, as long as they’ve got the stock ready to sell.
So it’s a legitimate move, and they’re still charging $100 extra? Way to go LG and Harvey Norman. Can we all agree that LG should never make a Nexus device ever again?
i heard they’re already booked in to make the next one, for some reason.
What do you expect. Demand is rediculous and they are still selling at some places for $200 more than googles price.
Heck if that original price point was never set and this was a $500-600 phone from google everyone would still be all over it.
Its just annoying that they are jacking the price up.