Nexus 4 absence in India, frustration & explanation

The Nexus 4 pure Google Android smartphone by LG is a great handset and has met with huge popularity across the world, despite problems with supplies meeting demand. However, we have been detailing the release saga of the Nexus 4 for India and there is growing frustration that the phone has still not been officially launched there, although several times it has looked as though it was about to be. Today we want to look at just why the Nexus 4 is still absent for India.

Recently we updated our readers in India with the latest situation regarding the official Nexus 4 release there and detailed the sorry saga so far (see here). Even though Google now lists India as a supported country on a Nexus 4 microsite the order page still lists it as not available yet for the country. Also online retailer Saholic put up a new availability date for the Nexus 4 as April 30, which was taken down again merely to be replaced with the unhelpful ‘coming soon’ message.
We also mentioned that Google’s and LG’s lack of official information about the delay of the Nexus 4 for India was not helping the situation, with consumers feeling left out of the loop and as though they didn’t matter. Although there had been speculation that the delay may be down to a pricing disagreement between Google and LG we had no further details of this at that time. In the last few days though Google’s Eric Schmidt discussed Nexus devices (or lack of them) for India at the Big Tent Activate India event and gave us a little insight into the situation.
From previous comments to our posts on the Nexus 4 for India we now that many of our readers have felt really disappointed as well as annoyed about the treatment of customers in the country by Google and LG and when Schmidt appeared at the event in India one question in particular drew a big response from the audience. A developer asked Schmidt about ‘low-cost’ Nexus devices in general and why they didn’t make it to India within a reasonable timeframe. In reply, Schmidt said this had been noted and that Google was working on it and then apologized for this. He then went on to concede that ‘low-cost’ Nexus devices often ended up being more highly priced for India and said that was also being looked at.
It does seem then that pricing has played a large part in why the Nexus 4 has not yet been officially released in India. Furthermore we have heard that a report last month discussed a pricing debate between Google and LG about the Nexus 4 for India and quoted a source who said, “They (LG and Google) have not yet come to terms on whether to opt for the same price model at which Google introduced the phone in the US, or let LG determine the price of the new phone for the Indian market.”
Of course we should remember that not all Nexus devices have been officially launched in India but we still expect the Nexus 4 to be, although nobody seems any closer to offering a release date for the phone in the country. Many consumers in India have taken alternative routes now to get the Nexus 4 in the country, either via unofficial sources or asking friends in the US to get it for them and many of our reader’s comments on other posts have reflected this.
As we said in our previous post about this saga, an eventual official release of the Nexus 4 in India could be too late, as other potential customers will have given up and opted for a different smartphone instead. We’d really like to hear your thoughts on this. Do you think that customers for the Nexus 4 in India have been given the short straw and deserve more of an explanation? Are you still waiting, or maybe you’ve moved on to another smartphone because of your frustration? Let us know with your comments.
Source: CIOL