Android Phones
Verizon aims to discontinue Samsung Galaxy S III 32GB, Droid 4, and more
January 28, 2013 | by Natesh Sood
Android Phones, Carriers, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Verizon
One of the sad parts of the Android product life cycle is seeing it vanish from store shelves. Today, we learned that Verizon is no longer purchasing stock for several successful products. Instead, the carrier will let the remaining stock and inventory run dry in anticipation of replacing it with something better.
The products in particular include the 32GB model of the Samsung Galaxy S III, Motorola’s Droid 4 and Droid RAZR, and the Rezound is effectively gone. On February 15, Verizon plans to end sales of the LG Lucid 4G LTE. Overall, these products have been on the shelves for quite some time, with the Galaxy S III being the most recent model to launch. However, the 16GB model will remain in stock and is likely the much more popular Galaxy S III variant.
It will be interesting to see if Motorola opts to produce another version of the Droid series with the iconic slider QWERTY keyboard, but it is anyone’s guess at this point.
Too bad they stopped supporting the Galaxy Nexus pretty much out of the box. If it wasn’t for my unlimited data plan I’d ditch Verizon. Verizon does deserve some credit for the growth of Android. Google fails in all respects when it comes to advertising, so Verizon’s “Droid” campaign really jump started Android with the release of the OG Droid. Unfortunately, the “Droid” branding went to far and really began to impact the phone’s performance due to absolutely terrible Droid roms. I’m really excited about what Moto is going to bring to the table now. I’m hoping they focus on extremely solid hardware (which there have always been known for), minimal customizations to Android, and long battery life. The “thinnest/lightest” battle needs to end and the new focus needs to be on larger batteries. My $0.02, fwiw.
I wholeheartedly agree. I could care less if some phone is mm’s thinner than another device. Show me a top notch phone with great internals and a stellar battery life. I really like the design and power of the Droid DNA, but I would prefer stock Android with a slightly more powerful battery.
I actually thought Apple was going to take a step in this direction when they went with the “larger” screen, but instead they went for ultra-thin and light. I have larger hands and the iPhone just feels miniscule and unsubstantial. They could have really led the industry into a new direction if they had focused more on using that extra space for expanding the battery life. Hopefully Moto will make battery life a priority with the X-phone – they are the only manufacturer besides Apple to really make an effort to provide good battery life with the Razr/Razr Maxx.
I’ll gear this review to 2 types of people: current Zune owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a Zune and an iPod. (There are other players worth considering out there, like the Sony Walkman X, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision of the Zune vs players other than the iPod line as well.)