By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
A number of Canadian early adopters who pre-ordered Google's Galaxy Nexus on June 27 are upset that their tablets haven't yet shipped while some retail stores like Staples have already sold out of their initial stock. Some buyers, like myself, are thinking of cancelling their onlinepre- orders and instead hope to find one of these 7-inch Android Jelly Bean tablets in the wild. This would save them some money as Google Play demands a $20.00, 2-day shipping and handling charge.
The 16GB variant of the Google Nexus 7 is apparently available online and in stores from Staples.ca with free one day delivery.
Screen shot taken from Staples.ca which is selling the Nexus 7 online and in stores
I called the Front Street, Toronto branch of Staples earlier today to inquire if they had any stock of the tablet and the sales associate stated that they had sold out earlier and everything is on pre-order.
This is the first 'big' hardware launch for search giant Google. While they have previously sold Nexus phones off their website and in some partner mobile carriers, they've never had this amount of demand.
The Nexus 7, manufactured by Taiwanese company ASUS, is a relatively affordable 7-inch tablet with the latest operating system Google makes and also features a quad core processor, a front facing camera and various content tie ins for movies, books, magazines, TV shows and music.
It is designed to avoid the 10-inch Apple iPa, and instead compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire reader and also obliterate many competing 7-inch Android tablets in the market that run on older versions of the OS and cost significantly more.
Content is a big factor of the Nexus 7, but a lot of this content is US-only and Canadians (as well as buyers from the UK and Australia) will have very limited access to content until various distribution rights are worked out, which will take time.
This hasn't dampened enthusiasm for the device which has received high praise even from the staunchest critics and has generated a lot of buzz since it was announced.
Last week, various reports from the US confirmed the same problem. Retail outlets like Staples, Gamestop and others had stock of the tablet before pre-orders starterd shipping. Now, it seems, the same thing is happening in the UK, but nothing yet for Canada.
It is customary for companies to honour and fulfill pre-orders before or during the same time they make stock available to retail outlets. This is something that Apple has mastered, managing to keep their shipments in a holding pattern until the day of availability and then delivering on the promise of pre-order exclusivity.
It seems Google has yet to figure out these aspects of logistics, distribution and order fulfillment whcih are a big part of overall customer satisfaction.
I pre-ordered a 16GB version of the Nexus 7 tablet on June 27th, minutes after the Google Play store offered the device. The device has not yet shipped and neither is there an online option to cancel the order. Moreover, it seems Google will charge you a 15% Restocking Fee if you plan on returning a pre-ordered Nexus 7.
I called Google's support phone number (1-855-83-NEXUS (63987) to cancel my pre-order and was on hold for one hour before I decided to hang up. It seems that orders can be can be cancelled via e-mail but I know some people who cancelled orders yesterday but have not yet heard back from Google.
Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla