To understand why Verizon is so hesitant to announce the release of the Galaxy Nexus you have to understand retailers and how their minds work.
The Holiday shopping season is a huge opportunity for retailers. No, I am not talking about the fact that this is the time of the year when they are supposed to finally break even for the year and actually turn a small profit? That stuff is all marketing garbage created by their industry to make us believe that the prices they are charging are as reasonable as possible and that they are not just profit sucking scum.
The bigger opportunity of the Holiday is one most consumers don?t realize. I know, because I owned a retail business for 15+ years. The Holiday season is the time of year when you unload all the old junk that you couldn?t sell all year long. I am talking about stuff that you have actually given up on and likely even put in storage becomes the items that you now feature as ?door busters?. Make it ?look like? a deal and watch it disappear from your overstock.
Let me explain. Consumers have been trained to look for deals on ?Black Friday?. So, if a retailer needs something that looks like a deal, they simply take old models, left over items that are likely obsolete and blow them out at cost or often even well above their original cost. The retailer makes their money back and the consumer (likely with little knowledge about the product they are actually buying) believes they got a deal.
So, what happens if you are a ?smart? retailer and you buy correctly which means you don?t have lots of old junk hanging around? Simple, you look for manufacturers that were not as smart in their inventory planning. It?s not hard to find a manufacturer stuck with old product. The retailer cuts a deal, buys it at substantially less than the original cost, and just like magic you have a deal for your door buster ad.
Most consumers don?t know much about what they are actually buying, and since the Holidays have become ?I need to get a gift for little Johnny?? The consumer?s mindset often becomes I really don?t care all that much about the details, features, etc., all I really care about is that this obligation is fulfilled and I can check someone else off my shopping list.
Want to confirm what I am saying, simply look at the Verizon Black Friday Holiday advertisements (Verizon took them down but You tube still has them) and take a close look at which phones and tablets are on ?sale?. It?s all old stuff that most of us would never even consider buying.
Now, consider that if Verizon released or even announced the release of the Galaxy Nexus, the media would pick up on it. With the added publicity around this ? brand-new, state-of-the-art iPhone killer? which likely to be a hot topic and all of a sudden even people that didn?t know why they should have this new Galaxy Nexus phone, would want it. This means that Verizon would sell a whole lot less of the old (but profitable) junk they bought, and they might even get stuck with lots of old junk in inventory that no one wants to buy.
So, I understand all that, but here is what I don?t understand?
When this phone was first announced I put my name on the sign-up sheets with Samsung, Verizon
and Google. These are all substantial-sized companies. The sign-up lists were specifically for the Galaxy Nexus, and NOTHING else. All these companies have huge privacy statements on their websites that brag about how they respect my privacy and won?t misuse my personal information?
To date Samsung has spammed with 5 separate times with offers of everything from computers, to televisions and refrigerators.
Verizon has spammed me 6 times with all their free phone offers, old obsolete tablet offers, change data plan offers and more.
To date, Google is the ONLY company that has NOT spammed me.
So, while no one is willing to talk to me about the product I am anxiously waiting to spend money on,
2/3 of the companies involved are anxious to exploit my personal information without so much as a bit of concern and spam me constantly with all the other crap they think I ?should? be interested in buying from them.
To me this means one of two things. Both Samsung and Verizon either are the profit sucking scum I mentioned at the beginning of this rant and don?t care at all about their customers or their Marketing Departments are quite simply marketing ed. Given those two choices I would have to point out these companies both sell technology in yet their marketing departments are living back in the dinosaur age.
Anyway, my opinion....
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