It is fair to say Google’s handling of the Nexus 4 has been poor. When the budget smartphone is in stock, it’s there for about ten minutes maximum, followed by the Google “SOLD OUT” label. T-Mobile and Three (UK) have the Nexus 4 in stock now, but on their contract.
The great appeal of the Nexus 4 was it had features that only high-end devices normally have and the smartphone came with Android 4.2, the new version of Jelly Bean. Nexus products get radical software upgrades and Google’s stock skin, which many users love.
At the beginning, some reviewers were put off in the US due to lack of LTE, but that has not stopped the formidable horde of people wanting the phone. We cannot tell if Google are making good sales or bad sales, simply because we are unsure how many they have stocked over the month.
Google’s UK managing director, Dan Cobley, has said that the shortage of devices is down to LG’s shipments being “scarce and erratic”. LG apparently cannot handle this amount of sales, which is odd considering they have been in the manufacturing industry for some time. We wonder what hardships are causing them to ship so slowly to Google.
Due to the huge anticipation for the arrival of new stock on Google, many have taken to eBay to hunt down reselling phones. The only problem is eBay has now added guidelines to stop this from happening, so users that actually want the phone can get it at the right price. Here are the guidelines:
- Authorized resellers will be allowed to list an unlimited number of items per week.
- Ebay Top Rated Sellers will be allowed to list up to 8 items per week.
- All sellers meeting minimum performance standards will be allowed to list 4 items per week.
- New sellers who’ve confirmed their personal information may list 1 item per week.
While Google is optimistic that LG will soon be on top of the manufacturing and Google can be able to keep the line going smoothly, we suspect it will be a while before Google is completely in stock with the Nexus 4. Analysts are predicting around forty million Nexus 4 sales before the end of next year.