Nexus 6 64GB Not Available

[Emperor]

My apologies if this is covered in another thread, but does anyone know what the availability of this phone is unable to meet the demand. Either Google/Motorola sold Million$ of units or the production capacity is too low. Everyone who wants and iPhone and Note 4 can buy one and I know they millions every year. We should see reports about how they are selling more units than they can produce. Also keep in mind that my carrier is VZW and I'm looking for the carrier independent version from Google Play store or Motorola. Probably just venting but not having the product available has to be bad for business.

 

[osaekomi]

I'm very frustrated as well. The only thing I can think of is that the 6 inch form factor was an unknown for them. It's not like the next version of the iPhone, where sales are pretty much guaranteed. I can only hope that they got the message, and that they dramatically ramped up production to meet the demand that is obviously there.

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[mxmarcus]

Join the club.
I check on Moto and the Play store every day and no luck

I even called T-Mobile today to buy it outright but the won't sell it to me because I don't have a account with them. I taught about opening a new line with them and cancel it after a month but that is $50 down the drain for a line I don't need

 

[Robbie317]

I think the carriers are almost exclusively 32 GB blue right? Only T-Mobile even gives you the option of the 64 GB.... Would lead me to believe production is more primarily geared towards the 32.... I don't know why for only $50 Google just didn't do 64 GB only and just ignore the 32 GB version... $50 shouldn't be that big of a deal if you are already going to spend $649.... Carriers could easily add $50 on to the contract price while not making much of a difference to the end user in comparison to the Note 4 and iPhone 6+ on contract pricing...

 

[brosko]

The demand seems big when reading on this site about all the people who are dying to get a nexus 6 and all the frustration because of the fact that it is not readily available, but I am sure that the nexus 6 does/would only account for a miniscule percentage of total smartphone sales. Overall the nexus 6 is not and will never be a really sought after device in the grand scheme of things. Just as all the Nexus's before it.

It is rather intriguing however that they don't seem to be able to keep up with the relatively small demand for their device.

 

[bjrosen]

I have two theories, one is that the 6" screen is unmanufacturable, the other is that Motorola is deliberately squeezing N6 supplies to punish Google for selling them down the river to Lenovo.

 

[Benjamin_NYC]

I have two theories, one is that the 6" screen is unmanufacturable, the other is that Motorola is deliberately squeezing N6 supplies to punish Google for selling them down the river to Lenovo.

And neither theory makes any sense.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[WeAreAllUnique]

I don't think that the Nexus 6 is the only device that has had this issue. The iPhone 6 Plus was also scarce. I preordered it and it didn't come until 5 weeks later. I still go into carrier stores and ask it they have the 128GB iPhone 6 Plus and even after 3 months most places don't have it in. I believe manufacturers have to adjust their production schedules because it seems like consumers are upgrading more often and not waiting out their 2 year contracts.

 

[Robbie317]

I don't think that the Nexus 6 is the only device that has had this issue. The iPhone 6 Plus was also scarce. I preordered it and it didn't come until 5 weeks later. I still go into carrier stores and ask it they have the 128GB iPhone 6 Plus and even after 3 months most places don't have it in. I believe manufacturers have to adjust their production schedules because it seems like consumers are upgrading more often and not waiting out their 2 year contracts.

It's a supply issue.... Samsung already announced they are building a new $3+ billion smart phone display factory because all their other factories are at capacity and can't keep up with growth... I believe Qualcomm has already said they can't build chips fast enough... Flash memory was in short supply a few years back... Apple said they were just now catching up to demand from the iPhone 6 release 3 months ago... and Apple is pretty good at hording parts ahead of a launch to minimize delays in production... although iPhone sales are massive in comparison...

 

[Robbie317]

The demand seems big when reading on this site about all the people who are dying to get a nexus 6 and all the frustration because of the fact that it is not readily available, but I am sure that the nexus 6 does/would only account for a miniscule percentage of total smartphone sales. Overall the nexus 6 is not and will never be a really sought after device in the grand scheme of things. Just as all the Nexus's before it.

It is rather intriguing however that they don't seem to be able to keep up with the relatively small demand for their device.

I think they have sold more Nexus 6 than they thought they would... To say the Nexus line is not and never will be really sought after.... I'd have to disagree.. Leading up to the launch I visited several T-Mobile stores to see what they knew and each one said they had a lot of demand for the phone. A lot of walk in traffic and calls asking if they would have it.... I've had several random people in the mall, Target or Walmart ask "Hey is that the Nexus 6?" and that never happened once with my 5.... Granted the 5 kind of blended in.. Where as the sheer size of the Nexus 6 stands out a little more... Most people thought my 5 was a Samsung device... Heck I've actually seen Nexus 6 commercials on TV...

Overall it's really hard to say.... Unlike Apple hardware is not even 5% of Google's sales.. 90+% of their sales is from Ad/search revenue.... and they've never once announced Nexus sales figures... It's all a guessing game.....

 

[tgp]

I think they have sold more Nexus 6 than they thought they would...

I'm beginning to think this too. All major US carriers (OK yeah I know, but let's leave Verizon out of this for now... :-\ ) selling it as well no doubt adds to demand. I'm still trying to get the unicorn!

 

[Jeremy8000]

I don't know why for only $50 Google just didn't do 64 GB only and just ignore the 32 GB version... $50 shouldn't be that big of a deal if you are already going to spend $649.... Carriers could easily add $50 on to the contract price while not making much of a difference to the end user in comparison to the Note 4 and iPhone 6+ on contract pricing...

Carriers will likely be driving the majority of Nexus 6 sales. To them, that $50 drives down the perceived value to the majority of their perspective customers who, unlike many of us, would not perceive the need for the additional space, and while the price would still be lower than comparably provisioned Note 4/iPhone 6+, the Nexus series doesn't enjoy the name recognition or, it would seem, the massive advertising funding provided to them by Samsung/Apple to help promote the devices.

It's a supply issue.... [SNIP] Flash memory was in short supply a few years back...

I don't know what the build time is on these devices, but would imagine that if enough time has passed for a cycle to complete, the only thing that would be reasonable for the 128GB model to remain so elusive would be that there is an issue of supply on the particular RAM module used in it.

 

[planoman]

Not sure why they are so hard to get. It is not like the Nexus is really that popular. I have only seen one Nexus in the wild and it was a 5 and the person was given it by their brother who got an iPhone.

Had the Nexus S,4,5 and now 6 and no one had asked me if that was a nexus. I have had people ask me if my Nexus is an iPhone 6+...

 

[Robbie317]

Carriers will likely be driving the majority of Nexus 6 sales. To them, that $50 drives down the perceived value to the majority of their perspective customers who, unlike many of us, would not perceive the need for the additional space, and while the price would still be lower than comparably provisioned Note 4/iPhone 6+, the Nexus series doesn't enjoy the name recognition or, it would seem, the massive advertising funding provided to them by Samsung/Apple to help promote the devices.

Thus my comment that they just should have done away with a 32 GB version... The $50 cheaper perception only exist because you are giving people two options... at $699 outright or $249.99 on contract the Nexus 6 is cheaper outright and on par with the Note 4 and iPhone 6+ on contract.. If you do the financing option a lot of carriers are doing (and seems to be the most popular option these days) the Nexus 6 at $699 spread out over 24 months would be cheaper than the Note 4 or iPhone 6+ over the same financing period.... and it's more profitable for Motorola/Google as a 64 GB chip doesn't cost $50 more than a 32 GB chip at wholesale rates...... Would also help at the production level as well... and as I stated in another post I think the Nexus line is starting to pick up more name recognition.... It's no longer the geek thing to own.... It's not (and may never) be as main stream as the Galaxy or iPhone lines but it's gaining in popularity... Seeing Nexus 6 TV spots more and more often now... So Google is putting a little more into advertising it.. Hard to even touch Samsung's Galaxy marketing budget (rumored to be around $400 million in 2014) and Apple (rumored to be $350 million) but it's no longer limited to online banner ads....

 

[Robbie317]

Not sure why they are so hard to get. It is not like the Nexus is really that popular. I have only seen one Nexus in the wild and it was a 5 and the person was given it by their brother who got an iPhone.

Had the Nexus S,4,5 and now 6 and no one had asked me if that was a nexus. I have had people ask me if my Nexus is an iPhone 6+...

Never had anyone asked if that was a Nexus 5 (and when they did ask and I told them they all asked if it was a Samsung phone).. but I've had a few people ask me if that is the Nexus 6 since I've had it and two guys I work with have iPhone 6+ and said "Man you got the Nexus 6" and wanted to compare side by side the two..... and amazingly I didn't expect the two people at work to know what a Nexus 6 was....

 

[Jeremy8000]

Thus my comment that they just should have done away with a 32 GB version... The $50 cheaper perception only exist because you are giving people two options... at $699 outright or $249.99 on contract the Nexus 6 is cheaper outright and on par with the Note 4 and iPhone 6+ on contract.. If you do the financing option a lot of carriers are doing (and seems to be the most popular option these days) the Nexus 6 at $699 spread out over 24 months would be cheaper than the Note 4 or iPhone 6+ over the same financing period.... and it's more profitable for Motorola/Google as a 64 GB chip doesn't cost $50 more than a 32 GB chip at wholesale rates...... Would also help at the production level as well... and as I stated in another post I think the Nexus line is starting to pick up more name recognition.... It's no longer the geek thing to own.... It's not (and may never) be as main stream as the Galaxy or iPhone lines but it's gaining in popularity... Seeing Nexus 6 TV spots more and more often now... So Google is putting a little more into advertising it.. Hard to even touch Samsung's Galaxy marketing budget (rumored to be around $400 million in 2014) and Apple (rumored to be $350 million) but it's no longer limited to online banner ads....

That $50 savings isn't a perception only relevant to the 64GB Nexus, though. It's also relevant to the competing, better known brands, against whom that savings helps marketing position. No question that offering a single model would reduce its cost in comparison to the same model as one of multiple variations, though. I suspect that if they had offered only a single memory size, carriers would have exerted what pressure on Google they could to have it be the 32GB size, since the vast majority of consumers who would want the Nexus 6, who are coming from phones with similar or lower storage, would not think it a deficit.

As to on-contract pricing, bear in mind that there has been some movement in the industry away from carrier subsidies, and even carriers that distribute the cost of the device to the consumer over time still make it quite clear that they will receive the full retail of the device when all is said and done.

Nexus isn't the product that nobody's heard of anymore, and by pushing the envelope in size and finally with a truly premium device it's garnered some interest, but it will take at least one more cycle of evolution and substantial marketing push (the scope of which could hardly ever be expected to match the level of market development funds provided by an OEM for any OEM-driven phone).

I'm just hoping Google gets over the notion of the cloud being as widely continuously available and supporting bandwidth needed to alleviate the need for on-device storage, which has the potential to grow greatly if technologies like 4k video gain any traction. Allowing for removable storage in future Nexus would go a long ways towards negating the need for multiple RAM models, though DRM is still understandably a concern.

 

[Robbie317]

That $50 savings isn't a perception only relevant to the 64GB Nexus, though. It's also relevant to the competing, better known brands, against whom that savings helps marketing position. No question that offering a single model would reduce its cost in comparison to the same model as one of multiple variations, though. I suspect that if they had offered only a single memory size, carriers would have exerted what pressure on Google they could to have it be the 32GB size, since the vast majority of consumers who would want the Nexus 6, who are coming from phones with similar or lower storage, would not think it a deficit.

As to on-contract pricing, bear in mind that there has been some movement in the industry away from carrier subsidies, and even carriers that distribute the cost of the device to the consumer over time still make it quite clear that they will receive the full retail of the device when all is said and done.

Nexus isn't the product that nobody's heard of anymore, and by pushing the envelope in size and finally with a truly premium device it's garnered some interest, but it will take at least one more cycle of evolution and substantial marketing push (the scope of which could hardly ever be expected to match the level of market development funds provided by an OEM for any OEM-driven phone).

I'm just hoping Google gets over the notion of the cloud being as widely continuously available and supporting bandwidth needed to alleviate the need for on-device storage, which has the potential to grow greatly if technologies like 4k video gain any traction. Allowing for removable storage in future Nexus would go a long ways towards negating the need for multiple RAM models, though DRM is still understandably a concern.

You are fooling yourself if you think carriers apply any kind of pressure on Google... Google is one of the most powerful and wealthy companies in the world and is the odds on favorite to be the first ever trillion dollar company even though they do trail Apple at the moment.... How would carriers apply any pressure on a company who's hardware (phone/tablet) revenue makes up less than 5% of their income and probably even less of their profits? The iPhone is Apple's top revenue source and they don't bow to carrier pressure..... If Google was bowing to pressure you'd already see a very heavily branded and bloated Verizon Nexus 6.....

Higher capacity storage versions are almost always the more highly sought after version.... I've seen so many people on here say they are "Settling" for the 32 because of the inability to get a 64.... They could have reduced overall cost and sold just a single 64 GB version for say $679 (heck I bet they have enough meat in the device to sell it at $649 and still make a healthy profit) I'd even be willing to bet in the near future (maybe next year or the year after) they learn from this and only offer a single storage capacity version.... (But then again they have not really learned how to manage direct to consumer sales over all these years so maybe that is a bad bet to make.)

I don't understand why Google does not offer expandable storage.. I know they want to push us all to the cloud and personally I am more a fan of the cloud and streaming than I am with expandable storage.. But I understand the need/want for expandable storage... I could easily survive with 32 GB but for $50 and being lucky enough to snag one I opted for the 64 GB version... I've always had my device set to upload new pictures and video's to my home computer when I am home and on WiFi.. which allows me to (for the most part at least) keep my phone storage pretty clean.... I stream music and movies all the time minimizing my need for on board memory.... But if it were up to me I'd offer just a 32 GB version with expandable storage, and in a year or two when 4K video is more widespread go to 64 GB with expandable storage.. Kind of how Samsung is doing it now... One storage capacity version but you can add up to a 128 GB SD card.... Heck I have a 64 GB SD card in my desk drawer at home from when I had my 16 GB Galaxy S3 just sitting there...

If Google was going to bow to any kind of pressure after all these years expandable storage has always been the biggest complaint from users...

 

[Jeremy8000]

You are fooling yourself if you think carriers apply any kind of pressure on Google... Google is one of the most powerful and wealthy companies in the world and is the odds on favorite to be the first ever trillion dollar company even though they do trail Apple at the moment.... How would carriers apply any pressure on a company who's hardware (phone/tablet) revenue makes up less than 5% of their income and probably even less of their profits? The iPhone is Apple's top revenue source and they don't bow to carrier pressure..... If Google was bowing to pressure you'd already see a very heavily branded and bloated Verizon Nexus 6.....

Higher capacity storage versions are almost always the more highly sought after version.... I've seen so many people on here say they are "Settling" for the 32 because of the inability to get a 64.... They could have reduced overall cost and sold just a single 64 GB version for say $679 (heck I bet they have enough meat in the device to sell it at $649 and still make a healthy profit) I'd even be willing to bet in the near future (maybe next year or the year after) they learn from this and only offer a single storage capacity version.... (But then again they have not really learned how to manage direct to consumer sales over all these years so maybe that is a bad bet to make.)

I don't understand why Google does not offer expandable storage.. I know they want to push us all to the cloud and personally I am more a fan of the cloud and streaming than I am with expandable storage.. But I understand the need/want for expandable storage... I could easily survive with 32 GB but for $50 and being lucky enough to snag one I opted for the 64 GB version... I've always had my device set to upload new pictures and video's to my home computer when I am home and on WiFi.. which allows me to (for the most part at least) keep my phone storage pretty clean.... I stream music and movies all the time minimizing my need for on board memory.... But if it were up to me I'd offer just a 32 GB version with expandable storage, and in a year or two when 4K video is more widespread go to 64 GB with expandable storage.. Kind of how Samsung is doing it now... One storage capacity version but you can add up to a 128 GB SD card.... Heck I have a 64 GB SD card in my desk drawer at home from when I had my 16 GB Galaxy S3 just sitting there...

If Google was going to bow to any kind of pressure after all these years expandable storage has always been the biggest complaint from users...

Whether one chooses to call it pressure exerted by carriers leading to Google modifying their approach to the handsets, or whether one calls it Google's 'listening' to carriers' requests and chooses to modify it, there is no question that Google has made changes on behalf of carriers. Why do you think Google opted to bake in support for carrier-specific automatic downloads and allowed locking of devices? In and of its own that does nothing directly to improve the Android platform, and can actually lead to a lesser Android experience at such time as some users are blocked or postponed availability of updated versions.

As to the higher capacity versions always being the more sought after, I would encourage against basing that determination on the comments made on a forum trafficked by the more devoted demographic of android users. I'd be interested in seeing any data showing distribution of sales by internal storage volume for devices that have varying levels. Given that the carriers all wanted to carry the 32GB model, and only T-Mobile opted to also carry the 64GB model (and note that these were their ordering plans that generated initial manufacturing orders before there was ever any availability with which to have an issue), it seems to follow that the carriers, who have the greatest level of experience with what consumers will buy, projected greater sales potential from the lower storage unit.

 

[Robbie317]

Why do you think Google opted to bake in support for carrier-specific automatic downloads and allowed locking of devices?

and they made it to where we can delete anything auto uploaded by the carrier when the SIM is entered...

Carriers are trying to sell service plans not phones... The smart consumer would know to ask questions and figure out they should have the higher capacity storage just in case... I'd agree and say the majority of people buy the cheaper 16 GB iPhone and won't realize "Man I should have got 32 or 64 GB." until their storage is slammed full and they have to ask someone who knows about electronics to find out why they are always full memory wise... They then learn (or hopefully learn) and get the higher capacity the next time around.... At least with Samsung's flagship devices (and a few other phones) you have the option of expandable storage... Why I said if it were me I'd make 32 GB with expandable storage... So when you hit that magic mark and realize the folly of your ways you can at least expand it with a $20 - 50 memory card... at which time you should have just forked out the extra $50 up front for the higher capacity..... if $50 is an issue for you then maybe.. Just MAYBE you shouldn't be spending $649 on a phone to start with?????

 

[bjrosen]

What's your theory for why it's still unobtainable months after it was released?. The Droid Ultra was available in Verizon stores on the day that it was announced, it's virtually the same phone as the N6, differing only in the screen, camera and battery. How come Motorola can produce Droids but they can't produce Nexus 6s?