In the beginning I was the first person to jump to Google's defense. If you consider the fact that Google has not had very much success in the past with the sales of their Nexus devices, with the exception of the Nexus 7, they had no real way to gauge the popularity that would overcome the Nexus 4 and the Google servers. With that in mind, I wasn't all that surprised that after the Nexus 4 went on sale on November 13th, that it was gone as quickly as it was. There were a few troubles with their servers having to handle a barrage of refreshes, which didn't help with the process but by the end of the day, both models (8 and 16GB) were displaying "Sold Out." As time went on, people became restless and I said that you needed to be patient since Google and LG aren't used to this type of popularity. Even if you had asked me yesterday I would have said I was patiently awaiting my opportunity to buy a shiny, new Nexus phone. However, today, the interwebs were abuzz with news that LG was going to halt Nexus 4 production to work on other things. If this report turns out to be true, Google had better be prepared to run out into the middle of the room to apologize to the masses. It is completely unacceptable that I should have to wait 2 months to buy a product from when it was originally released. It would be one thing if they were working hard to make the phone available as soon as possible but if their just going to stop making the phone and leave us hanging they have some explaining to do. LG said a few days ago at CES "Through our collaboration with Google, we launched the Nexus 4 smartphone. This is our first of many devices to come with our growing partnership with this very selective company." Quite frankly, I simply can't see Google partnering with LG on another project any time soon. The Nexus 4 launch has been an utter failure from beginning to the apparent end. Both of these companies should be embarrassed with how this has been handled both in terms of communication and in sheer numbers. By no means am I saying that I am no longer a fan of the Nexus project or even of Google as a company but they really need to step it up the next time around if they don't want to have the community lose faith in them completely. I don't expect the Nexus 5(?) to be produced by LG but by the way LG have described it, a lot of Android blogs have made that inference. Again, I'm not saying that I won't buy the next Nexus if it is build by LG, but I will still have a pit of disappointment in my heart for Google and who I thought they were.
So, how does that make you feel? A little angry? Betrayed? Feel free to vent in the comment section below...
UPDATE: According to reports, LG has denied that they have stopped producing the Nexus 4. Whether that's true or not remains a mystery since they seem to be as rare as unobtanium...
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