All signs point to the Nexus 6 not being ready for primetime
It's looking more and more that the Nexus 6 is not ready for primetime. After reading a myriad of articles and watching every video I can find, this is readily apparent.
First, the device has been announced, but there is a lack of any substantive information. There are an abundant number of articles from various news outlets regarding the Nexus 6, and these sources have held the physical device in hand. What do they share in common? None of them have released any details about the phone other than essentially what google has already released. i.e. what the phone looks like, what the home screen looks like, etc. No one has so much as even opened an app on the phone. No one has released any detailed information about how features like ambient display are working. No one has tested the quick charge features. Hell, we can't even confirm whether or not the device has a notification LED. This strongly suggests that Google has had them sign a binding NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
Is having an NDA for a new product odd? Of course not. It's a common practice in the industry. That said, is it odd to restrict information to such an extent after the device has been announced/revealed and is taking take pre-orders? You better believe it. I can't even remember the last tech product that was *accepting preorders* yet still had so many basic details about the device so heavily restricted by NDA. Even Apple, perhaps the king of keeping products under wraps, let's everything out after a product is officially announced, and well before preorders begin. When the iPhone 6 was announced, we had full feature highly detailed product reviews in short order. No detail was left uncovered within 24 hours of announcement.
There are little tidbits of worrying information, that, if put together, paint an ugly picture. For example, an androidpolice article includes the bit of information that "double tap" to wake is buggy and may work one out of ten times. Various articles include disclaimers like "google only let us hold the phone for a few minutes" or "google insisted we not open any applications and only swipe through the main screens". This strongly suggests a device that has some kind of issue(s) that has not yet been resolved. Perhaps instability issues or other facts about the device that would look negative if revealed.
Then there is also the infamous preorder cut off in 5 seconds after preorders began. I don't believe for an instance all stock was sold out in mere seconds. I'm sorry, the Nexus is a niche product. Walk down the street and ask 20 people if they know what a "nexus phone" is. You'll be lucky if one of them can tell you. It carries no where near the notoriety of devices like the iPhone or even galaxy phones. Common sense strongly suggests that few people other than tech enthusiasts were sitting around refreshing the play store waiting for Nexus 6 preorders. Certainly not enough to sell out it 5 seconds. The. Demand. Simply. Is. Not. There. In other words, the cut off wasn't because of selling out, it was because some issues exists that necessitates not taking products orders right now. And, in the business world, not taking product orders (i.e. choosing not to sell product and make money) is indicative of a huge red flag problem.
There are also the frequent updates going on with google apps in the play store to update them to material design. They are being pushed out regularly. This strongly suggests that the software is behind the hardware at this point. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the current ROM for the Nexus 6 does *not* contain a complete suite of the standard basic applications (email, text, etc.) at this point. (and that also backs up the reason these preview articles on the net note that google banned them from trying to open any applications.... I suspect the icons are merely placeholders for many apps)
So you may say, so what? The apps aren't ready. No big deal right? Wrong. They can't ship the phone if the apps aren't complete yet. They can't manufacture and box thousands of phones that are flashed with an incomplete ROM. That means the phone has to be delayed until the apps are completed and a complete ROM can be flashed to the phones. If google is still updating apps on the play store (as they have been regularly the past two weeks), we may be looking at more of a delay than Google leads on. Having to hold back production due to a software not being ready delays time to market considerably. I suspect this is part of the reason to do with the preorders being cut off.
Hopefully this is all it is, and not something more serious like instability issues or some other last minute defect they haven't been able to fix.
Anyway, all signs point to the Nexus 6 not being ready for primetime. I suspect they wanted it out by the end of the year to compete with all the other flagships in the 4th quarter, but they simply didn't make the cut in time. Now, Google is trying to rush this thing to market, and they have created a situation in which they can't do anything more than "announce" the basic idea of the phone at this point. There is no real substantive information about the phone, no detailed reviews, and a preorder situation that is a disaster.
Let's just recognize the fact that something is not right about the phone at this point. The questions are, what is it, will it be fixed, and when will this thing actually be ready for sale.
. I don't know which representative to believe now they have the phones made and should be able to ship on the 3rd so why wouldn't they.
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