***Official Galaxy Nexus Pre-Release speculation thread**

[jbdan]

I just don't understand how alienating the tech world, and delaying contract sign-ups, including losing some people to AT&T or the other two, can be considered good for business. I know we are a small group, but it makes more sense to me to have as much upside as possible. If you have a phone ready to launch, having it sit in the warehouse does not make sense to me.

If it is all factual I agree.

Thing is no one knows the 100% truth to what they're doing. Par for the course right?

 

[halon]

I wonder if future phones shipped with ICS will be button-less.

There is an HTC phone coming out next year with ICS and buttons. Forget the name of it. It was a big phone with sharp corners.

 

[muscal]

Not sure if you guys saw the dates on the BestBuy Ad. It reads "Prices good for all BestBuy Mobile Stores from 11/27-12/25"

 

[cggorman]

The only thing about the Verizon Response to eRob that really bugs me is the seeming contradiction between "releasing before the end of the year" and "still in testing, can't commit"

WTF? Which is it? Why not just call it 12/31/11 and be done with it?!?!

 

[bxojr]

I think it's funny ... we hear leaks that say the phone is delayed because of bugs and continued testing, and people say "I don't believe it."

But if we hear a leak that says Verizon is delaying the phone for "corporate" reasons, people say "I KNEW IT! It's all about GREED!"

As Han himself has reminded us, all of these leaks are hearsay. They're all questionable. Bottom line is, we don't know exactly what's going on, and we probably never will. Deal with it.

 

[BabyBlues]

As requested by hundreds of you, I drafted up an E-Mail voicing your concerns and frustrations, E-Mailed it directly to my contacts at Verizon Wireless, and called them directly. They escalated the issue and got back to me with an answer, but one that you're probably not going to love.


I can provide the official statement tonight or tomorrow, but essentially it boils down to what we already know:

• The Galaxy Nexus is currently undergoing rigorous testing and announcing a tentative release date that may change would be a disservice to their customers
• The Galaxy Nexus WILL be released BEFORE the end of the year

I talked to them on the phone for about 30 minutes. I expressed the specific concerns. I even relayed some of the tough stuff that I don't personally agree with... the bottom line is they won't offer a launch date until they're ready. They aren't ready. When they are, they will let us know, and they'll be ready before the year is over.


My questions to you:

1. If you know the G-Nex will be out by year's end, why is the specific date between now and then crucially important?
2. If Verizon announced a release date, testing hit a hiccup and the launch was delayed, would you be more angry than if they simply told you "by the end of the year"?
3. Does this suffice or would you ask that I do more on behalf of our community?

I can post my complete letter here along with Verizon's Official Response once I have it. I've debated publishing this on Phandroid, along with an objective narrative that discusses the opinion of both sides, to provide a more public/visible way to have your voices heard. But in many ways that could be stirring the pot when we've already got our answer.

That being said, I haven't ruled it out as I know many people here want a venue to express their personal feelings/concerns/frustrations to Verizon. I suppose it depends on the content and tone of the response I get to this update.

NOTE: I've locked this thread temporarily to ensure it's visibility as I seek the opinions/replies of everyone involved!

Thank you for your time and effort. I think that posting the letter here would suffice - we are the ones who were the driving force. An article would probably be good on the news page but maybe a more general one stating that a letter had gone out and that you had personal contact. At the very least it shows that you were willing to go to bat for your members when we were feeling a bit left out by our carrier (or soon to be carrier for those not yet with Big Red).

As far as any other questions - I do believe that you answered the biggest concerns and anything else that comes is just us being nit-picky. A promised release 'this year' should be good enough for the people wondering how long to wait or if they should do a 'trial' with another phone.

Thank you!

 

[SolidOrange]

for those of you getting excited about the best buy flyer, don't forget about this fiasco:

Best Buy flyer hints HTC Thunderbolt pre-orders soon | Electronista

thunderbolt in the flyer on february 3rd, thunderbolt released march 17th.

 

[jbdan]

Welcome to the forum brian fizz and zedster!

 

[bxojr]

Hey, it occurs to me that this 32GB thing on the tech specs page is actually a little bit more significant than people are saying.

The page never before said 32GB. At first it said something like "16/32GB," whatever that means, but it seemed like everybody just saw the 32. In fact, though, it was ambiguous, and never said we would actually get 32GB.

Now it says 32GB, period. As far as I know, that's the first time any public (non-leaked) document has made that statement unambiguously.

 

[muscal]

Also, why are people saying 11/27? I thought we were expecting 11/28...

Scott,

See my post a couple below yours. Here is a permalink....http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...test-inside-info-11-21-a-872.html#post3509870

 

[zedster]

I think it's funny ... we hear leaks that say the phone is delayed because of bugs and continued testing, and people say "I don't believe it."

But if we hear a leak that says Verizon is delaying the phone for "corporate" reasons, people say "I KNEW IT! It's all about GREED!"

As Han himself has reminded us, all of these leaks are hearsay. They're all questionable. Bottom line is, we don't know exactly what's going on, and we probably never will. Deal with it.

as I said in my first post here, VZ has a horrible track record with crippling their own phones, failing to communicate with users and generally screwing the pooch. Between Google, Samsung, and VZ, VZ had the lowest brand rating I would guess, especially among power users. It only makes sense that even if it's a HW or SW bug (aka Samsung and Google's fault) if we hearing nothing we are going to put the blame on VZ.

 

[BabyBlues]

The only thing about the Verizon Response to eRob that really bugs me is the seeming contradiction between "releasing before the end of the year" and "still in testing, can't commit"

WTF? Which is it? Why not just call it 12/31/11 and be done with it?!?!

I have to say I agree - they should have just put the last business day they are open in 2011 and anything before that would be a bonus.

That being said - I do understand that they want to make sure they aren't giving us something with a big problem. Yeah, most of us will live with any small bugs knowing that a fix is forthcoming, and quickly - but there will also be more mainstream users that don't know that who will yell and scream and stop their feet about how bad the phone is and none of us wants that to happen.

 

[Dubbin1]

And the bug (although P3 has said it isn't a problem on the Verizon version) is only activated when on 2G networks... chances are you'll only be using 4G and 3G, but not 2G lol.

You would be surprised how many areas only have a 2g signal.

 

[DSCR]

I guess I have a problem. I keep up with phones pretty well. I go in to various stores frequently and play around with devices. I have done it for years.

I dont know if it is an individual rep thing, or a store manager thing, or a district manager thing, or a regional manager thing or a corporate thing, but I listen to pitches and sales progressions of folks talking around me and they change from time to time, but seem to be pretty consistent during any one snapshot of time.

A few weeks ago, maybe in mid October, I remember hearing sales reps all around me telling folks how much better iphones were than everything else in the store. At that time they actually probably were. Boinic, thunderbolt, etc. It seemed like a pretty consistent sales message at the time.

As I breezed through one store the other day I listened more.

A middle aged couple was interested in the iphones. The rep didnt try to dissuade them at all. Further in, the conversation turned to plans and data plans. He very smoothly pointed out that vzw was currently running the double data promo for LTE phones. That got their attention and they moved down the line from iphones and he showed them a few android devices from LG, samsung, to rezound to razor. He didnt reveal any inclination to steer them to any particular phone. He simply told them about why iphones were good, vs the double data, vs the LTE phones.

Now, I didnt stay long enough to see what they bought, but I was very impressed with the reps savvy and presentation. He seemed to really listen to them, address their response and listen again.

If I were his sales manager, I would have been really proud of him and my training of him.

That being said, if I were vzw's vp of whatever, and responsible for attaining the year end holiday numbers, I would probably do it exactly like they seem to have done.

As a nex fan, I hate this. I want it now just like ya'll do.

But from the corporate and sales perspective, these are good problems and might be the best holiday sales season they have ever had.

And, I want them to be very profitable! If not, cost cuts will come and service will go down. Discretionary policies will get stricter, and we will see the old verizon from the 90's come back, where they extended your contract if you just changed calling plans. You dont get good service from poor companies that are in trouble.

So, if this is good for verizon, I can live with it. A couple, or even a few more weeks wont kill me. Then I will hold their feet to the fire, bitch and moan as necessary, use all the unlimited data I can, swap phones if I need/want to and fully take advantage of every policy that benefits me.

If the phone is a success, all will be forgiven by most. If the phone has issues, it could damage vzw much worse.

The ONLY BEEF I have with verizon are three.
1. Charging me $20/month for 2 mb for wireless tethering.
2. Killing their unlimited international data plan and letting companies like vodaphone rip us off for data that didnt even work 90% of the time.
3. Killing domestic unlimited data, even though I am grandfathered.

It used to be MUCH worse.

 

[Wilfred B]

So we come back to some great news! First the storage size is re-confirmed for 32GB and then the Windsock makes himself useful!



AND WE GET BEST BUY ADS YIPPY!!

Second part of that tweet is extremely ignorant. Here in the UK 3G coverage is not all that, so we have to fall back onto 2G networks.

 

[Dubbin1]

Also, why are people saying 11/27? I thought we were expecting 11/28...

Funny, I thought it was 12/8...

 

[mongstradamus]

Hey, it occurs to me that this 32GB thing on the tech specs page is actually a little bit more significant than people are saying.

The page never before said 32GB. At first it said something like "16/32GB," whatever that means, but it seemed like everybody just saw the 32. In fact, though, it was ambiguous, and never said we would actually get 32GB.

Now it says 32GB, period. As far as I know, that's the first time any public (non-leaked) document has made that statement unambiguously.

Would take that with grain of salt uk site says 32 gig only when all the ones that have been sold already were 16?

 

[kk4df]

My questions to you:

1. If you know the G-Nex will be out by year's end, why is the specific date between now and then crucially important?
2. If Verizon announced a release date, testing hit a hiccup and the launch was delayed, would you be more angry than if they simply told you "by the end of the year"?
3. Does this suffice or would you ask that I do more on behalf of our community?

Rob: Excellent what you've said so far. Big thanks for the efforts you are making to communicate directly with Verizon. I support all you've stated thus far.

You asked three questions. The following represent my thoughts regarding those you listed.

1. Specific date is not crucially important to me, but may be to some.
2. I'd personally love to know a "target" date or week. If delays, I'd love to know what we are getting improved as a result of any additional waiting.
3. I'd like to reinforce that this phone is a Nexus phone, and I wish to be an early adopter of this phone. I personally don't want all the problems to be fixed when I get it. Don't wait for Google to fix any problems. If there are legitimate problems with the phone hardware that cannot be fixed with an OTA update, fix those.

 

[ruestor]

I'm sure someone here can point you in the right direction.

That's easy...When you arrive in the Big D...hang a right over the Ambassodor bridge. In a few short moments you'll find yourself in Canada. There will be a Gnex waiting for you.

 

[zebug]

My questions to you:

1. If you know the G-Nex will be out by year's end, why is the specific date between now and then crucially important?
2. If Verizon announced a release date, testing hit a hiccup and the launch was delayed, would you be more angry than if they simply told you "by the end of the year"?
3. Does this suffice or would you ask that I do more on behalf of our community?

My responses, for what's it worth:

1. The specific date itself doesn't matter, its just nice to have SOMETHING....ANYTHING to look forward to.
2. I would rather they throw out a date, then push it back AND provide the reason why it was pushed back....at least they would be communicating with us rather than a whole bunch of nothingness.
3. It's awesome and more than suffices. Thank you very much.

Now another thing however, if it is still in testing, how can they even say "by year end?" IF they don't want to put out a date only to push it back when things don't go as expected, why even say, "by year end?" Personally, I think they can say "by year end" because there isn't anything technically holding it back and it is that they want the R phones to have their time to shine.

 

[lovebyte21]

Another lurker coming out of the woodwork! (I've been creeping for awhile now, 1.5 months(ish))

I've had a BB Storm for over two and a half years now and it is absolutely killing me. I had a nice taste of android with the Bionic, and I want more. Maybe i'll kill two birds with one stone tonight and see if I can get any GNEX info out of a CSR....probably in vain.

I can relate. I'm been using my Blackberry Curve for 2 1/2 years also.

 

[tpags]

The Rezound shows 799 too. Is that normal with Best Buy? I've never bought a phone from BB.

I guess Best Buy normally has higher off contract prices. I've never gone through Best Buy.

 

[nvitone23]

The Rezound shows 799 too. Is that normal with Best Buy? I've never bought a phone from BB.

Best Buy jacks up their full retail prices.

 

[Dubbin1]

I can relate. I'm been using my Blackberry Curve for 2 1/2 years also.

Wow that is painful!!! I was so happy the day I ditched my Curve for a Droid. Worst part is I had a Curve for work and my personal account.

 

[HTCismyname]

Thanks Rob for both your time and effort.

1. If you know the G-Nex will be out by year's end, why is the specific date between now and then crucially important?

For me the time is less important than the reason--although I understand this is an unreasonable request because there is no way Verizon would explain. If they are truly not ready (ie physically the handsets are not ready to be delivered, or there are real problems with the phone) then fine. If all these SGNs are just sitting and ready for Verizon to pick the best release date, I'm not so happy. We pay enough. They make enough.

2. If Verizon announced a release date, testing hit a hiccup and the launch was delayed, would you be more angry than if they simply told you "by the end of the year"?

I wouldn't really care, but if they announced an official release date and were wrong, I could only imagine the backlash on here. As many people say it will help them plan out their next phone, but an official release date would only be useful if it was actually accurate.

3. Does this suffice or would you ask that I do more on behalf of our community?
You've done all you can. Verizon will do things on their own time and we will largely be left in the dark--this is their MO. Thankfully their connectivity is by far the best where I am so I'll just patiently wait on the edge of my seat.

Thanks again!