- Verizon is the exclusive U.S. launch partner. It had to cost
- Verizon had to want this phone enough to pay Google for an exclusive launch. So why are they acting like this phone is the neglected child?
- So why haven't Google/Sammy marketed the Verizon G-Nex?
- Maybe it was in their agreement that Verizon be allowed to have an uninterrupted launch of the RAZR and Rezound (Verizon surely knew those were coming just as much as the G-Nex, I doubt they got blindsided by this "oh crap, we have 3 big phones at the same time").
- Are there product delays with the VZ device?
- the last we heard from panda/BMX didn't s/he say that there wasn't a shortage, didn't know where those rumors came from, and that devices were headed to the stores?
Sorry, I picked apart your paragraph and turned it into bullets because I've been wondering much of the same things you are. It seems like a lot of other posts are getting (unnecessarily) fatalistic and I'm looking at this more like you, wondering how this all works.
- BMX said to the effect "It's out of our (Google's) hands now." But is he on the hardware or OS side of that development?
- Samsung must have been fairly confident in announcing Nov 17th -- and they updated their website as such -- which suggests it's NOT a supply issue (I kept waiting for somebody to declare "Floods in Thailand Cause Supply Chain Delays," but it never happened.
- Verizon seems to be the scapegoat, but I don't believe it's 100% their fault because of the availability date changes we've seen abroad. (I'm still waiting for the 17th to be disproved.)
- Verizon had to have entered contract talks for a device like this many many months ago. And they knew that the holiday lineup is a critical period where they want to give their three big Android makers equal space to flaunt their wares. But I think it would be pretty hard for them to have predicted this much compaction (three devices becoming available all at once), and as we're seeing, even this close to launch it's fluid -- they changed from the 10th to the 11th for RAZR only a week ago, the Rezound seems to have sprung from nowhere, and maybe they really were expecting to get this Nexus on the floor back on the 3rd but that date slipped due to the manufacturer missing a date.
- I can't imagine a more complicated marketing mess. Google has a responsibility to launch the product internationally. Verizon has to squeeze it to fit among their RAZR and Rezound launches, and doesn't have a whole lot of influence over Google from that standpoint. Samsung's primary relationship for this phone is with Google, not VZW, so if there are software or hardware issues, the Verizon folks may not be as intimately involved.
So I think what we're seeing is a gooey situation where *something* is happening behind the scenes with respect to last minute, unanticipated delays, and the players are attempting to scramble stealthily but to us it looks like they're barely treading water / keeping their heads above the whitecaps.
My 2
