Google Play Listed and Quickly Removed Nexus 5

By Tim Johnson on October 18, 2013

Yes, it’s true – this is not a rumor. Whether it was “accidental” or not we’ll never know, but Google gave it away officially this time.

The Nexus 5 smartphone showed up for a short time on Google Play, right beside the brand new Nexus 10 we said Google was releasing, in addition to a few accessories. However, as quick as Google Play listed Nexus 5, Google removed the listing and replaced it with the Nexus 4 – which hasn’t been available for a few days now.

Even though the Nexus was only available for a short time, Android Police was able to capture a screenshot and a URL to the device (https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_5_black_16gb – note where the URL says Nexus 5).

Android Police said that the listing was available for a time, and they were able to get a look at the Nexus 5 listing icon and the written sales copy for it as well. However, when we attempted to access the listing using the above URL, it took us to the following error page:

“We’re sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.”

I guess that’s what we get for sleeping in today?

Nexus 5 Photo Credit: Android Police

An interesting tidbit about the news is the fact that when Nexus 5 was listed, it had a not-too-bad of a price of $349, but they rightfully point out that since the listing was obviously a mistake, so the price is probably a mistake too.

However, we have heard and told you about the rumored price point potentially being set by Google at $299, so the $349 listed price isn’t too far off, and might be closer to reality than anyone suspects. The $349 price was for the 16 GB Nexus 5, and the 32 GB model will likely cost more.

The Android Police said the N5 listing was:

“Capture the everyday and the epic in fresh new ways,”

Which is exactly what the current sales copy for the Nexus 4 says. In any case, Android Police were nice enough to make a full size render of the Nexus 5 from the photo that was used on the listing page.

This is a good thing, even though it didn’t last. To date, it’s been difficult to ascertain whether Google was releasing a device at all, so that makes this Google Gaffe a good thing – especially after the Google employee we told you about the other day who said that Google hasn’t mentioned that there was a Nexus device in the works. Whether that was to stave off the rumors or not, we’ll never know.