Monday, January 21, 2013

Semi-Final Note on the Nexus 4

I saw the following plea in the Google code forum that is tracking the Nexus 4 wifi bugs.


#637 jamma...@gmail.com
please don't make me return my nexus 10 and get another iPad Google...............

I wanted to leave a couple of closing thoughts on this, so I posted a response.

Today (16 minutes ago) Delete comment
#638 d...@parrot-farm.net
@637: It does not take a rocket scientist to notice that Google has demonstrated a huge indifference towards their Android device customer base.  It has to be that, I mean, as compared to being hugely incompetent.  After all: Google owns Android.  And they own the Nexus device line.  Think about it: they own the OS, and they own the hardware, which they contracted out to hardware vendors to build for them.  What else would explain their inability to sell and support a product that works, if it's not indifference?

I guess it could be incompetence, though.  Or maybe arrogance.  Which would lead to indifference.  Which would appear as incompetence.

In other words, I'm guessing that Google could not care less even if they tried whether or not you send back your Nexus 10 and purchased another iPad instead.

Bottom line, I guess, is that from a consumer perspective it doesn't matter whether Google's dysfunction while bringing the Nexus line of product to market was caused by indifference, arrogance, inexperience, or incompetence - the net result is the same: a defective product and a non-functional product support system. And a customer base who is left feeling that Google has given them the finger.

It will be interesting to see whether the Nexus 4 turns out to be a failed experiment. Google has had two months to fix the wifi and bluetooth problems with it, and rumor has it that LG has already stopped production of the Nexus 4. Will Google cast the estimated 400,000 Nexus 4 owners adrift, or will they eventually be able push out an update that fixes it?

We'll see.

--Doug
doug@parrot-farm.net

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