Remember What Business You Are In

As I have mentioned before, I purchased one of the first Nexus 7 units off the line. Software wise is was phenomenal. Hardware wise if died after about ten weeks. I have been going around to Staples, a seller of the Nexus, asking what their experience was. The sale folks open up when you say that you hear a failure rate of 30%. They agree that it is around that number. Imagine Boeing or Dell have such a failure rate. Yet Google finds that acceptable.

As I mentioned I sent my back to Schmidt, the Chairman and long ago colleague with a nice letter. Never heard back. In fact that is the Google way apparently, total abject arrogance. Had I sent Ivan Seidenberg a note, he would and have called personally. Ivan and his folks are professionals, Google seems in my opinion and experience to be a collection of dilettantes. That may indeed be their long term undoing, but not too soon.

I saw the recent note of a new Nexus  which states:

The next Nexus 7 may increase the resolution of its display to 1080p and maintain the relationship between Asus and Google, according to a report from Digitimes. The follow-up has been rumored for some time, but now Digitimes suggests Google will tweak the device with updates while maintaining the starting $199 price.

Google scarcely promoted the Nexus 7’s IPS display, which was an impressive 7-inch 1280×800 and rivaled the screen of the Kindle Fire HD. If Google preserves the aspect ratio of the Nexus 7 in its follow-up, the new display would be 1728×1080; if it conforms to a standard HD display, 1920×1080. Digitimes also suggests Google and Asus may slim down the bezel surrounding the screen, which might allow an aspect ratio change.

Reports on sales of the first Nexus 7 have been rare outside of the ballpark figures from Asus CEO David Cheng suggesting Google had sold about three million units in the four months following its launch. Digitimes indicates Nexus 7 sales have remained steady and that six million units will have shipped by the end of January. Reports on the success of the Nexus 10, or a successor to it, have also been scarce.

With a 30%+ failure rate Google should have dumped Asus in my opinion. But it is not Asus. They have a poor product in my opinion but Google has a horrible Customer Service.  I recall calling them and was told that they feel my pain and the approach was to frustrate the customer so much that they just went away. And away the customers went, to Kindle. The Asus product in my opinion is cheap and fragile, and  in fact most likely a poor rushed deign. Thus the alleged massive failure rate. Will Google learn? I really doubt it, they are software people, ad they just do not understand, or even want to understand, hardware. Compete with Apple, I think not. Also Asus is ruining its own reputation as well. Perhaps they should reconsider this venture.