Ever since the LG Nexus 4 release date brought us the undisputed Smartphone bargain of the decade, there has been absolute chaos on the front of supply and demand – i.e. supply not nearly being able to keep up with enormous demand. We’ve already heard many a tale suggesting that LG is in fact going out of its way to keep production to a minimum in order to further the hype for and desirability of the Nexus 4 handset, which if true certainly appears to be working.
Even Google has jumped on the bandwagon and singled out the ranks of LG as the perpetrator behind the distinct lack of Nexus 4 handsets, having suffered quite the battering at the hands of frustrated consumers unable to secure an order, or being forced to wait weeks for delivery.
Well, the good news – sort of – is that LG has finally stepped forward in the form of Cathy Robin to offer something that almost resembles and explanation as to why the Nexus 4 seems impossible to get onto the market in any realistic numbers. Or to quote her directly: “The (Nexus 4) supply problems are not solely related to LG.”
Roughly translated, the problem appears to amount to one whereby the pre-release date forecasts of Nexus 4 sales were wildly inaccurate, having been based largely on the performance of the previous Nexus handset. Having not exactly predicted the biggest of success stories for the Nexus 4 – why on Earth not? – LG put much of its weight behind other projects and left the Nexus rather on the backburner.
And hey-presto here we are – so far from the launch of the device and still with empty shelves the world over.
Cold comfort as all of the above may be for the frustrated masses, the good news is that she also went on to directly suggest that all current supply issues will have been addressed and remedied by February, meaning fresh stocks are expected in no more than three weeks or so.
The only question is, with blistering specs and such an astonishingly low price-tag, how can LG not have known that demand for the Nexus 4 would have been off the scale?
Maybe next time they should ask us – we’d have gladly educated them!
