The smartphone could have been planned for the end of October all along

Oct 16, 2013 06:53 GMT  ·  By

Nexus 5, the next handset in the popular Nexus series of devices, is nearing its official release, and Google is already preparing a marketing campaign for it, it seems.

A photo depicting a Google display at Best Buy has emerged online yesterday (courtesy of daniel benavides), and it is said to have been confirmed as being planned for the upcoming smartphone.

The one thing that is missing from the picture, however, is the Nexus 5 itself, which was expected to make an official appearance on October 15, but which is nowhere to be seen.

Of course, we should have expected for this rumor to fail, given that Google didn’t announce a launch event for yesterday.

Previous rumors, however, suggested that Google and LG would be on track to announce the Android 4.4 KitKat-based device in late October, and it seems that we’ll have to wait a few more weeks to see whether they pan out or not.

In the meantime, however, there’s no info on what it’s taking Google and LG so long to bring the new mobile phone to the spotlight.

According to some reports, the government shutdown might have caused the delay, due to the fact that the device hasn’t received all the necessary approvals.

Whether that or the phone was slated for launch at the end of October from the start, we might never know.

What remains to be seen is whether the latest reports on the price tag of the device pan out, and whether we’ll indeed see a 4G LTE-enabled Nexus 4 model unveiled in the coming weeks.

The 16GB Nexus 5 was said to feature a price tag of $399 (€296), while the 32GB variant could arrive at $449 (€332). A LTE Nexus 4, should Google indeed plan it, might be $100 cheaper.

With no official confirmation on any of these, we’ll take the info with a big grain of salt. However, more on the matter should emerge soon, so stay tuned to learn the news.