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Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

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Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#51
post #2

It sold out way quicker than that. I tried to purchase it right away, had a phone in my cart, then when I went to checkout, it was gone and said Coming Soon. This was within the first 10 minutes of the phone going on sale. UPDATE: The store is back up. 16gb appear to be sold out, but I just successfully purchased an 8gb model. ANOTHER UPDATE: I just bought the 16gb model successfully as well. Both orders show as pend…

Update at 10:30 AM PST -

16gb model said 'In Stock', I added to cart and the message says 'There was a problem with your order' with a big blue button saying 'GO SHOPPING!'

I would expect better E-Commerce management from Google, who claims to have the brightest people working for it.

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#52

Ok, as of 12:09pm CST, I was able to add a 16GB N4 to my cart and check-out. So either they found another pallette of the things somewhere, or people are getting cold feet and canceling their orders. Hitting F5 on the product page seems to find a phone about once every twenty times, and on about the 1/5th try to add to cart, it succeeded.

A lot of people ended up with duplicate orders from the madness this morning, and I expect they're cancelling. My co-worker ended up with 3 N4's despite only seeing one confirmation.

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#53
Annoyed that they never sent out the email notifying that it went on sale despite having signed up for that.

The cynical side of me thinks that they're out of stock, it shows that they didn't believe their own statements about how great the product is and so didn't secure adequate supply. It makes me question just how much they believed in the product.

I suppose it's possible that the current order limits are based on how many orders they're able to handle versus physical supply, but I remain skeptical.

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#55
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Canada contracts are still typically three years. I've been salivating over this for months.

I am almost done my three year contract with Bell. I don't mind them so I don't mind staying with them. I want the N4 and I talked to retentions about what I could get post-plan if I brought in my own phone. They seemed quite confused and couldn't give me any better deals than a new customer. If I had gotten one of their subsidized phoned on a new 3-year deal they would have been able to give me a better deal. I woul…

If you live in a covered area Mobilicity is awesome. I'm in Ottawa, and it's going to be $25 a month for text/talk/data (what Telus currently charges me $60 for). Even if you consider the amount of subsidy they provide, the price differential is so wide. They also recently added free roaming minutes every month (50 minutes), for when I visit my family.

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#56
post #31

Google - I am sure you lost some sales by releasing the 4.2 update for Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 on the same day as Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 were released! Not that I am complaining - this same day update is fast even for Google :)

I have an unlocked Galaxy Nexus and I don't see any system updates in settings. Do you have any sources for this?

Prerequisite: Nexus 7 with Android 4.1.2 build JZO54K

Manual download link: http://android.clients.google.com/packages/data/ota/google_n...

Instructions: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/11/13/android-4-2-build-jo...

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#57
post #24

The fact that it is 2012 and stores still refuse to just let you give them money and then have them ship you a product is ridiculous. I don't want to sit here and wait for a store to open or for things to come 'back in stock' to buy a phone. That's why we invented computers, to automate boring tasks. I give you money, you put my name on a list, as phones come in, you ship them in the order of the names on the list. P…

I still don't understand why they don't take pre-orders. Even if it's just a "pledge" and not a transfer of money it would serve the double purpose of demand-sizing and wait-listing.

On a small scale that could work, but I don't think it would work well at something like consumer smartphones. They could look "bad" twice: 1) if they don't get enough pledges and 2) not being able to fulfill pledges because of too much demand.

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#58
post #36
post #24

The fact that it is 2012 and stores still refuse to just let you give them money and then have them ship you a product is ridiculous. I don't want to sit here and wait for a store to open or for things to come 'back in stock' to buy a phone. That's why we invented computers, to automate boring tasks. I give you money, you put my name on a list, as phones come in, you ship them in the order of the names on the list. P…

This is nice in theory. I think this doesn't happen because when you take people's money they're suddenly your "customers" and think they're entitled to a phone ASAP and if there are any unexpected delays you have upset the hoard. As soon as you take someone's money, they're a customer support liability.

Some business charge customers only when the product is shipped.

Re: Google's Nexus 4 smartphone sells out in the US in 50 minutes

#59
post #36
post #24

The fact that it is 2012 and stores still refuse to just let you give them money and then have them ship you a product is ridiculous. I don't want to sit here and wait for a store to open or for things to come 'back in stock' to buy a phone. That's why we invented computers, to automate boring tasks. I give you money, you put my name on a list, as phones come in, you ship them in the order of the names on the list. P…

This is nice in theory. I think this doesn't happen because when you take people's money they're suddenly your "customers" and think they're entitled to a phone ASAP and if there are any unexpected delays you have upset the hoard. As soon as you take someone's money, they're a customer support liability.

Pretty much.

If you're running a brick and mortar store, you want to serve the customers who are there now. That means not cannibalizing your inventory by mailing to someone who ordered last week. You also want people to come back to your store.

It is irrational for the store to mail you one when it comes in stock, though they should have a web-based corporate distributor that they can direct you to.

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