Customers hoping to buy an unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from the Google Play store have been out of luck since Tuesday. That afternoon, the phone was suddenly and mysteriously pulled, only to be listed as "coming soon." Now Google has confirmed to ABC News that the phone was removed from sale as a result of the ongoing patent litigation between Apple, Samsung, and Google—similar to the litigation that has blocked Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in the United States.
Until now, it hasn't been clear whether the phone was removed because of litigation or some other, less legally fraught reason. At issue is the phone's universal search function, which can search the phone's locally installed apps and data as well as the Internet. Apple already holds a patent covering this functionality, titled "Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system."
Google told The Verge that it would be disabling the local search function in an over-the-air software update for current users soon. When the phone goes back on sale next week, it will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. According to Google, this doesn't infringe on Apple's patents—up until now the handset was being sold with the older Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version of the operating system installed. The Android 4.1 update is coming to it (and several other devices) starting in July.
Samsung isn't the only Android partner in Apple's sights of late: Apple also asked the International Trade Commission to institute an emergency import ban on most of HTC's smartphone lineup. The ITC said that Apple didn't do enough to prove that there was an emergency, however. When the Galaxy Nexus does go back on sale, the unlocked HSPA+ handset will continue selling for its previous price of $349.
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