There have been plenty of signs over the course of the past week or so that we’re about to see the arrival of a 32GB Nexus 7. Considering all the retailers that already appear to have entries for the model in their systems, as well as the claims made by one customer that he was shipped a 32GB Nexus 7 by accident, it’s nearly as good as confirmed. What will a 32GB Nexus 7 mean for the existing 16GB model, though? Some evidence has emerged that seems to suggest Google could already be planning to retire that edition.

One retailer’s system shows the 16GB Nexus 7 marked with end-of-life status, and notes the 32GB Nexus 7 as its suggested replacement. Does that mean we’ll only have the 8GB and 32GB options in the future? That’s a possibility, but it’s not the only one.

What if that 32GB model is the suggested replacement only because it’s already in the retailer’s computers, and the 16GB Nexus 7 is actually being replaced with another 16GB model?

Remember yesterday, when Google announced Android 4.1.2? That came alongside news of a new hardware variant of the Nexus 7, deploying a new power management chip. It’s not a drop-in replacement for the old one, meaning that Android 4.1.2 or later will be required to properly operate the component. Maybe, in order to avoid confusion between the new and old versions, there will be a new SKU for the revised Nexus 7, and that info just wasn’t available when the old model got marked EOL.

That’s only a theory, but going straight from 8GB to 32GB sounds a little odd, so maybe 16GB really isn’t going anywhere.

Source: Phandroid