Was the Gnex launch screwed up? Who's to blame?

[STC09]

How do you screw up a launch that hasn't happened yet?
How do you delay a phone you never officially gave a release date for?

You can't...

Think back to the Bionic in, say, July after being announced in January without a release date and ask yourself those questions.

 

[digitalslacker]

Think back to the Bionic in, say, July after being announced in January without a release date and ask yourself those questions.

Ok, I'll give you that. You can screw up the launch of a phone if you delay it while you completely redesign it and then release it 7 months later.

That's not happening here.

 

[demiles]

You guys are amazingly entertaining. It's just a damn phone for gods sake! It will be out when it's ready, just like every other recent Verizon release it will be a buggy POS.

 

[jimbosi]

How is this so hard? I wouldn't consider myself an Apple fanboy (although the house is full of MBPs), but when I see an iPhone presentation, I normally see a release date. Even if it's a couple months in the future, Apple ties the presentation event to the launch. I understand Apple is different because of the power it has, but it seems to me that Marketing 101 is to create need (Google/Samsung's Oct announcement), then close the loop by informing how that need can be satisfied (Verizon-- hello??? **chirp** **chirp**). I'm sorry, but an email sign-up page does not meet the requirement. If the US just had a date, half of the forums here at AC wouldn't even exist, because most of the discussion circles around the release date.

I'm a pretty hardcore Android fanboy, and I'm excited about ICS, but Verizon's silence coupled with the overnight 32GB to 16GB change (if true) may cause me to find another phone-- maybe the Rezound. Probably ICS will be available in Jan via CM9 or a little later from HTC.

Plus, I bought a 32GB micro SD in a good deal, but before I learned the G-Nex didn't have external storage. The Rezound obviously has external storage.

So, right now I'm vacillating. If the 16GB is a mistake and the release date is really on 8 Dec, I'll probably go with the G-Nex. If 16GB is a reality and/or there are more delays, the Rezound may get my money.

 

[STC09]

Ok, I'll give you that. You can screw up the launch of a phone if you delay it while you completely redesign it and then release it 7 months later.

That's not happening here.

Not on the same scale - at least not yet - but so much momentum has been squandered and goodwill lost. In this case, the already delayed announcement was five weeks ago with practically zero marketing support from Verizon. There was the original splash of the Google/Samsung debut, global announcements and marketing by the GSM carriers, and a tremendous amount of interest from the tech press.

Contrast that with the single Verizon announcement I'm aware of: a brief, begrudged presser made on a Friday evening, the time corporations usually reserve for burying bad news.

Then there's the complete fiasco/debacle/CF of missing Black Friday, the single most important marketing window possible in the US. It's almost as if VZW is actively sabotaging Google.

Google could made have made great strides against Apple in the US market if Verizon had supported the Nexlax the way it did the OG Droid. VZW seems to have completely bunged that up.

 

[SchroederNexus]

Verizon's fault. Phone is out there - just not in America.

 

[mysterx]

Is anyone really to blame?

No one is to blame.

-me