Do we ever need to prefer constructors over static factory methods? If so, when?

Question

I have been reading Effective Java by Joshua Bloch and so far it really lives up to its reputation. The very first item makes a convincing case for

Answer 1

I'm in pretty strong agreement with Josh Bloch here, and he makes the case better than I could, but here are a few places where static factories aren't as appropriate:

• When dependency injection is more sensible; DI systems (certainly Guice) tend to inject things through their constructors. In particular, DI is appropriate when you expect that the parameters of the constructor might change in the future.
• When you specifically intend for people to write subclasses, and you're providing a skeleton for them to implement.