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Nexus 4 Shortage Explained

The previous Nexus releases weren't in high demand, so I can't hold it against Google for playing it conservatively.
 
I respectfully disagree sir.

It seems to me a couple of focus groups and customer surveys should have confirmed that WE DO WANT A SUPER PHONE FOR HALF PRICE THAT WE CAN TAKE TO ANY CARRIER.

You don't have to be Einstein to figure this stuff out.
 
Marketing surveys are notoriously unreliable. And being stuck with unsellable inventory would have been worse for Google. What is certain is that both Google and LG grossly underestimated the demand for this phone.
 
lunatic59 said:
Marketing surveys are notoriously unreliable. And being stuck with unsellable inventory would have been worse for Google. What is certain is that both Google and LG grossly underestimated the demand for this phone.
Click to expand...

Hopefully the success of this phone and T-Mobile's decision to do away with subsidizing phones in favor of paying full price for a phone and offering cheaper service plans will finally make a shift in the mobile industry. One can dream anyway.
 
lunatic59 said:
Marketing surveys are notoriously unreliable. And being stuck with unsellable inventory would have been worse for Google. What is certain is that both Google and LG grossly underestimated the demand for this phone.
Click to expand...


I agree that overestimating demand could have been catastrophic but I still doubt this is rocket science.

I mean were they not paying attention last year when the kindle fire was flying off the shelves?

If these companies need to learn anything it's simply that consumers ALWAYS want a bargain above all else.
 
That's the model Google has been hoping for since the N1 (which I bought and loved). They continue to get closer. Whether this is it or not ... we'll see.
 
Banished Angel said:
Hopefully the success of this phone and T-Mobile's decision to do away with subsidizing phones in favor of paying full price for a phone and offering cheaper service plans will finally make a shift in the mobile industry. One can dream anyway.
Click to expand...

It will, but these reports have me thinking Google wasn't thinking about this when they opened Pandora's Box and released this beast to the public.

It gives me pause to be honest and makes me question the competency at the top.
 
Banished Angel said:
Hopefully the success of this phone and T-Mobile's decision to do away with subsidizing phones in favor of paying full price for a phone and offering cheaper service plans will finally make a shift in the mobile industry. One can dream anyway.
Click to expand...


I have a feeling T-Mobile is going to have a really huge year in 2013!
 
sean76 said:
I have a feeling T-Mobile is going to have a really huge year in 2013!
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To be honest the more I think about it the more it seems the Nexus 4 is the peanut butter in T-Mobile's chocolate.

Kind of makes me think that out of all of the players involved (Google, LG, T-Mobile) that T-Mobile were the only ones with adequate foresight on how this was going to go down.
 
sean76 said:
I have a feeling T-Mobile is going to have a really huge year in 2013!
Click to expand...

They're sinking 4 billion into building out their network next year. Add that to the frequency they got from AT&T after the failed merger and you can see they're serious about making a comeback in the US. I hope they overtake Sprint as the number 3 carrier. 2 years with Sprint and oh the service was terrible. T-Mobile's Edge (2g) speeds match what I got with Sprint on 3g and T-Mobile's 3g speeds are as fast as my home internet.

Source on the 4 billion dollar expansion:
Latest News | T-Mobile | T-Mobile USA Selects Infrastructure Vendors to Support $4 Billion 4G Network Evolution Plan
 
NeXuS4 said:
To be honest the more I think about it the more it seems the Nexus 4 is the peanut butter in T-Mobile's chocolate.

Kind of makes me think that out of all of the players involved (Google, LG, T-Mobile) that T-Mobile were the only ones with adequate foresight on how this was going to go down.
Click to expand...


Well this is how I see it...

First Tmo breaks away from the whole at&t merger.

Changes its whole look, like making the sweet girl go bad...Black leather and motorcycles compared to white dresses and flowers. I like the change honestly.

News breaks of LTE coming to TMO in 2013

Then fast forward to this whole Nexus 4 thing, with them carrying the phone, we have to remember Tmo has a very good relationship with Google...a la the G1

And now we hear that they're getting the iPhone...Honestly that's huge for them!

I visited them today to pick up a contract free sim and I have to say I was impressed. The store was beautiful, the girl told me all of the stores are getting a make over, looked like a Miami nite club in there, not to mention the service was just awesome.

Not to mention I've been using my N4 on Tmo for the whole evening and have no complaints so far. Data has been very zippy and as close to LTE as I've seen. Not to mention the best part...$70 per month, unlimited talk and text with 5GB of data and with no contractual ties.

Yes, I expect good things from them next year.
 
lunatic59 said:
Marketing surveys are notoriously unreliable. And being stuck with unsellable inventory would have been worse for Google. What is certain is that both Google and LG grossly underestimated the demand for this phone.
Click to expand...
This is certainly understandable for the first round. There is no such excuse for the second round of ordering though. By then, Google and LG had empirical data (the sellout during Nov. 13) proving that demand is through the roof.

What a shortage also doesn't completely explain is why the store acted up so badly. Why it kept emptying people's carts, refused to process orders after showing them in stock, etc. We know Google can handle web traffic. That can't be the issue.
 
yfan said:
This is certainly understandable for the first round. There is no such excuse for the second round of ordering though. By then, Google and LG had empirical data (the sellout during Nov. 13) proving that demand is through the roof.

What a shortage also doesn't completely explain is why the store acted up so badly. Why it kept emptying people's carts, refused to process orders after showing them in stock, etc. We know Google can handle web traffic. That can't be the issue.
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I'd like an explanation from Google... I just spent over $500 on a phone that retails for $349...lol
 
I sell appliances for a living,, last week the LG big shots where as they do once in a blue moon, going over what is selling what isnt, and asking for feed back on why,( LG as a company is very good at trying to learn market concerns and what customers are saying)

so at the end of our formal get together, we got talking electronics(which we do not sell where is work) then I pulled out the nexus,, and then the questions really started flying, and they were very interested my points on vanilla android and quick updates, and we got talking updates, and they really started throwing the questions to me, one of the things i really stressed to them they have to get there giddy up on get there products quickly, so they wanted to know what i would consider quickly, I told them 3 months after google releases a update manufacturers should have updates out to there product, they seem very intrigued and were going to take it back to corperate to discuss
 
sean76 said:
Well this is how I see it...

First Tmo breaks away from the whole at&t merger.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean here. T-Mobile didn't "break away" - the DOJ announced they would oppose AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, filed an antitrust lawsuit, and AT&T eventually decided to back out. As a result of AT&T's decision T-Mobile received a hefty fee and access to additional spectrum - but if anyone broke away it was AT&T (though they really had no choice, it was doomed once the DOJ filed the suit).
 
Karl_in_Chicago said:
Not sure what you mean here. T-Mobile didn't "break away" - the DOJ announced they would oppose AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, filed an antitrust lawsuit, and AT&T eventually decided to back out. As a result of AT&T's decision T-Mobile received a hefty fee and access to additional spectrum - but if anyone broke away it was AT&T (though they really had no choice, it was doomed once the DOJ filed the suit).
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Sprint started that fire!
 
Reading between the lines, what I think LG is saying is that they made the number of phones they promised Google in order to get the assignment. They aren't going to make any more available during the Christmas shopping season because LG is barely breaking even on the phone as it is and it hurts the sale of their much more profitable Optimus line during the most important sales period. Plus every one of their carrier partners (with the possible exception of T-mobile) is absolutely livid about the price, especially the 8gb model.
 
sean76 said:
Sprint started that fire!
Click to expand...

what do you mean by that? there was no way that merger would have gone through without an objection from one of the telcos. DOJ intervention was based off the subscriber increase that would have resulted in the merger for AT&T.

The merger put focus on some financials that put a girm light on T-Mobile. T-mobile lost 510,000 subscribers last quarter.

they came to my private equity firm and offered themselves to us, but the numbers didn't look good. Deutsche Telecom getting the iPhone is not significant and the market barely noticed.

i use them, i like them. hopefully the Nexus 4 will be a nice bump.
 
kismetgeek said:
what do you mean by that? there was no way that merger would have gone through without an objection from one of the telcos. DOJ intervention was based off the subscriber increase that would have resulted in the merger for AT&T.

The merger put focus on some financials that put a girm light on T-Mobile. T-mobile lost 510,000 subscribers last quarter.

they came to my private equity firm and offered themselves to us, but the numbers didn't look good. Deutsche Telecom getting the iPhone is not significant and the market barely noticed.

i use them, i like them. hopefully the Nexus 4 will be a nice bump.
Click to expand...


Sprint flipped out about the merger, you don't think they made the most noise when that was announced? Dan Hesse knew his company would immediately fall even further into the abyss if they didn't try and stop at&t from buying T-Mobile. Verizon could have cared less, in they're eyes they are just the best, Sprint on the other hand knows they stink.

Also the DOJ didn't want a Monopoly on its hands...
 
kismetgeek said:
what do you mean by that? there was no way that merger would have gone through without an objection from one of the telcos. DOJ intervention was based off the subscriber increase that would have resulted in the merger for AT&T.

The merger put focus on some financials that put a girm light on T-Mobile. T-mobile lost 510,000 subscribers last quarter.

they came to my private equity firm and offered themselves to us, but the numbers didn't look good. Deutsche Telecom getting the iPhone is not significant and the market barely noticed.

i use them, i like them. hopefully the Nexus 4 will be a nice bump.
Click to expand...


However this all has nothing to do with the topic at hand, let's not hijack the OP's original thread of why there's a shortage of the N4.
 
sean76 said:
Sprint flipped out about the merger, you don't think they made the most noise when that was announced? Dan Hesse knew his company would immediately fall even further into the abyss if they didn't try and stop at&t from buying T-Mobile. Verizon could have cared less, in they're eyes they are just the best, Sprint on the other hand knows they stink.

Also the DOJ didn't want a Monopoly on its hands...
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I'm sorry. All I do is work in Private Equity specializing in Mergers and Acquisitions. Thank you for educating me.

no hijack
 
kismetgeek said:
I'm sorry. All I do is work in Private Equity specializing in Mergers and Acquisitions. Thank you for educating me.

no hijack
Click to expand...


I'm sorry...was that a sarcastic jab! I'm not saying you don't know what your talking about, and I am definitely not looking to educate you on mergers...lol! I'm just saying its a whole other conversation and topic, and it can easily spiral into a whole other talk, which has nothing to really do with how many phones LG made for Google to sell...

All good though : )
 
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