A Note to Google: Retail is (not) Your Friend

[NeXuS4]

I'm an electronics salesperson at a big box retailer and it's astonishing how much my corporate overlords are going out of there way to subvert android in favor of Apple products, irrelevant Windows 8 computers, and even feature phones!

CORPORATE HAS STOPPED ALL SHIPMENTS OF ANDROID TABLETS EXCEPT THE NOOK EVEN THOUGH CUSTOMERS CONTINUE TO REQUEST THEM.

With the exception of the S3 and One X we sell NO flagship android phones and with the exception of the S3 we sell no accessories for the android phones we do carry.

I'm doing my best to direct the customers to the appropriate online stores (hint: it's not the corporate website) but I obviously can only do so much.

I don't understand why a corporation on the bleeding edge and with as much power as Google refuses to exert it's potential leverage and force these faceless conglomerates to serve the general public's best interests and give Google the same shelf space as Apple products.

If all else fails Google needs to throw away it's "laisse faire" approach to it's platform and go full force after these people with an actual not half assed go at launching their own stores.

Apple over prices their stuff and Microsoft is rapidly slipping into irrelevance yet both continue to get more attention.

Sorry about this admittedly hastily written post but this is seriously getting on my nerves.

(Sorry about the spelling error in title.... I wish a mod would correct it...)

 

[El Presidente]

Corrected. You can actually change titles yourself by hitting edit, then Go Advanced in the edit box.

Phandroid published an article on a very similar topic earlier today you might be interested in: Does Google need its own retail store?

 

[NeXuS4]

I realize there are huge problems with trying to put up your own brick and mortar stores and I'm not saying that's the solution but from my POV it seems there are forces at work other than free market capitalism that are going out of their way to make sure Apple stays on top. How else does anyone explain the neglect android suffers from at the hands of major retailers despite customers keep on asking for alternatives to Apples overpriced products?

 

[yfan]

The problem here is that Google has less of an incentive than Apple to force retailers to do anything. Google makes Android, but has nothing to do with the production, sale, or profit made from Android phone hardware (except the Nexus line, and even then the products are produced by partners). Apple, on the other hand, controls the whole experience from software to hardware, and has a more keen interest in the sale of its hardware, which it directly profits from.

Do you know what, if any, difference there is between the margins your retailer makes from selling iPhones vs. selling Android phones? I would think that with an appeal to a economic market, the profit margin might be less for most Android phones. There is probably also an added incentive simplicity: if they sign up people with contracts to a given provider, they get a cut. Pretty much all iPhones they sell will be sold with a contract, and they don't have to differentiate phone to phone. Android phones may sell without a contract, and even if they sell with one, they have to train more people about more phones.

There's a reason Android is the platform of customer choice. In order to make such a choice, though, it might be incumbent on the customer to inform him or herself.

We will need to wait and see some solid numbers come out on the Nexus 4, however. If it turns out that despite the launch flops, the Nexus 4 sold like hotcakes from both Google and T-mobile, retailers may well sit up and take notice.

 

[NeXuS4]

The profit margin is clearly higher on Apple products but only for Apple themselves. The retailers make their margins by selling over priced accessories to Apple customers who again and again demonstrate an inability to realize when they are getting suckered. (No offense to Apple customers because I know there are smart ones too but these stores wouldn't do this if it didn't work)