This surprising development, or lack thereof, is due to several strategic reasons, according to Google. The first and most important is to offer a device that can be used on any network around the world. This means the same device can be produced en masse, cutting down production costs. In addition to cost factors, the removal of the LTE radio will increase battery life – a complaint from previous iterations of the Nexus phone.

In short, Google does not want to include both a 4G and a 3G radio in a device, when the 3G will become irrelevant in a few years. Once 4G is phased in on a wide scale basis, and 3G is phased out, we will likely see Google making phones with only 4G radios in them.


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