You might have been a bit too busy to notice, however, the Google Play Store is slowly “dropping” out the GPE Devices from it’s Google Play Store product offering of which, until now, has appeared pretty diverse in the recent months compared to where it’s at today. With many flagship models being adapted to the GPE product lineup, it’s very surprising to see only two devices available currently, with the exception of the Google Nexus 5 of course.
With an obvious future spot to be filled with a Nexus 6, which incidentally will replace the Nexus 5 in the GPE Store, it really makes one wonder what’s going on with the rest of the devices? Where is the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy S4, or everything else? Who knows? Could this be a traditional move by Google to thin out the GPE native device product line to make room for new releases, or something else?
With the launch of Android Wear for Android OS ( recently covered in our Moto 360 post,) we noted that the potential new strategy Google is implementing in regards to “Consistency Across Devices.” Their revised agenda would forcedly disallow “bloatware” on manufactures devices, by preventing them from customizing the Android OS Device UI beyond “Apps.” The exception to this rule however, would allow features to be implemented if it applied unique hardware features offered by the devices maker. Thus, “pushing” handset or device makers to compete more on a hardware level, ultimately leaving the software features up to Google.
This approach by Google, is something I can completely agree with as long as it does not limit the end-user in anyway to being able to achieve customization where applicable. No matter which device you are using, as long as they are running the same Android OS version, you should be able to achieve the same results regardless. I am confident that Google is moving in the right direction if this “consistency between devices” indeed holds true.
Check the below “current” screenshot of the available devices, and further below for a more “previous” screenshot of the devices offered in the Google Play Store.
Current Google Play Store Lineup ( at the time of this writing )
Older Google Play Store Lineup ( specific date not known )
