Source:Google
So if you were like millions of others salivating over the possibility of scoring one of these megal phones, let me recap the last few weeks of the slow moving train wreck. Here begins my diatribe…and spew some venom.
1.If you remember, Google was to launch the device at an official unveiling in NYC. However, hurricane Sandy came and the event was cancelled. Did Google reschedule? Make a video? Have an event in Mountainview? No. We found out the specs from online sites like cnet and gizmodo that there would be a Nexus 4 and updated Nexus tablets.
We all begin daydreaming. How cool it would be to own such a device. Daydreams of showing it off to friends at the next party. Geekbenching and speedtesting against the iPhone 5. Taking panorama shots and uploading to Picasa. Having more computing power in our pocket that they US satellite system. (Which runs on 333MHz computers, btw). Selling out old phone on eBay. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Oh, the glory, what happy days ahead!
2. Then online sale day begin, with one big problem. There was a very loose sale time. With many waiting and no pre-sale, Google suddenly and unexpectedly flipped the switch on online orders. They sold out in 30 minutes, but that was just the beginning of the chaos. Many ended up with partial or multiple orders. I personally knew a guy who bought 5 on accidents, the order went through a few days later. *theyre all sold by the way*. The site crashed the play store and there have not been any updates since. No PR, no press releases. No will be available on x day in Dec. Nothing. This, of course caused massive price increases of secondary markets. See Amazon and Ebay. You’ll also note that the Galaxy Nexus sales went up. People were seething for a new device. And they wanted it now, not “sometime.” There was no number to call. No Googler to assuage your doubts and make you feel better. No PR at all. We were all left ouf in the cold. Did Google really botch inventory supply and demand? Did they not do any market analysis? There should have been a ton of these things in stock, at least enough for say, a day!?
3. Google had perhaps the hottest product headed into the biggest shopping day of the weekend. After keeping mum 2 weeks, they continued to say nothing. We hoped that perhaps, but some early Christmas miracle, they might appear on the play store, for just a moment on Black Friday. Refresh, refresh, refresh…all day long. Googol times (yes thats a real word kids, it existed before Google. Google it). After a big letdown we held onto a hope that maybe, just maybe Cyber monday would have a treat in store. But nay. Still nothing.
Quick spec sheet on the score, here, folks.
| Feature | Apple | |
| Formal product announcement | ✓ | x |
| Set sale time | ✓ | x |
| Customer service | ✓ | x |
| Store wont crash | ✓ | x |
| Updates on inventory | ✓ | x |
| Apology letter for f ups(eg antennagate) | ✓ | x |
| Time shipping estimates | ✓ | x |
So now what? With no ship dates and no product in stock, where is this headed? I think there is a good chance there will be a price increase, should it ever return. See HP touchpad frenzy. Theres also a good chance nothing is in stock til January. At which point we will start to think, hmm…will this device be obsolete before it is available? Phones are being refreshed every 6 months at this point. The Samsung Galaxy IV will likely appear in spring, and the new iPhone is rumored to return t0 a June launch. Will you wait? Buy from a secondary market? Give up? Buy an iPhone. Let me know in the comments, its time to throw some tomatoes.
