Today is the day we have all been waiting for – the official announcement of the Nexus 5 smartphone. By this time there isn’t much that we don’t know about it, the specs, the price, and the availability – but one place it will not be available is on the Verizon network, which is a shame for the many users that call Verizon home. But the fact of the matter is that Verizon has never played nice with Google – the Verizon specific Galaxy Nexus faced the same long software update delays that Verizon is noted for. However, the whole idea behind the Nexus smartphone is that it receives the very latest and fastest of Android OS upgrades; so Google did not take this delayed by Verizon too kindly…so much so, the Nexus 4 did not even support LTE and only worked on the GSM networks.
Much to the dismay of Verizon users, the Nexus 5 will not be available on their network again. Senior Vice President of Android, Sundar Pichai, flatly declared, “the Nexus 5 will not be on Verizon,” which is really a slap in the face, especially since it will run the lowly Sprint network and is actually listed as one of Google’s official retail partners.
This is not really surprising when you consider the trouble Google experienced with the new Nexus 7 (2013) launch that was announced at Google’s I/O 2013, even shown off running on the Verizon network. Verizon then refused to activate the Nexus 7 tablet on its network, and then said it would be supported soon, and so far, there has been no word…again, Verizon customers were denied purchasing or using this great tablet on their network.
Hopefully, the biggest U.S. carrier and Google will patch things up. Pichai also made a point to say that Google and Verizon were working together on a set of projects for 2014, but never elaborated on exactly what they may be. Let us know in the comments or on Google+ how you feel about their being no Nexus 5 for Verizon customers. It seems that Verizon is doing its loyal customers a disservice from allowing them to buy and use the Nexus phones and tablets.