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What's up with google and their inability to: A. Launch products, both software and hardware, worldwide (or at least majority of countries). B. Launch product
by a254613e 6y ago
What's up with google and their inability to:
A. Launch products, both software and hardware, worldwide (or at least majority of countries).
B. Launch products with clear dates and not just "Join a waiting list". At least in German store that's the only option.
- Kiro 6y agoIn Sweden there's not even that. I just get redirected to a list of other products.
- bluescrn 6y agoC. Support products after launch (Still annoyed that they abandoned the Pixel C tablet after an Android update that broke the graphics drivers, leaving GLES games/apps very unstable)
- bobviolier 6y agoI actually got to hand that one to them in a positive way. I had a Pixel XL and now a Pixel 2XL, and the support is amazing for me. I've received two times a new Pixel 2XL over time (okay, not good that it broke) and that support was really good. I also have the Pixel Buds 1st gen, and there the support is also great.
- nohant 6y agoI think he is talking about the tablet "Pixel C" and not the phones. Owner of a Pixel C myself for the price it was a superb product, it is really a shame they've stopped following android updates. Still digging smalls features like the magnets to put it almost anywhere is the kitchen, or battery status check with a tap on the back...
- neuronic 6y agoD. Build a product intro that doesn't stutter during scrolling like Terminator after having its wires fried (FF v76).
- taneq 6y agoThat's a feature to them, they want everyone to use Chrome.
- bschwindHN 6y agoIt's terrible on chrome too
- snazz 6y agoYes. The Apple page is far smoother on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
- amenod 6y agoE. Launch products inside the whole EU at the same time.
- nagarjun 6y agoA. I can't even access the Pixel Buds landing page in India. I think launching the product worldwide is asking for too much.
- onion2k 6y agoI wonder if people signing up to that waiting list will start seeing a lot more adverts for headphones across YouTube and Google Search. I'd wager entering an email address on the site doesn't just put you on a mailing list for Pixel Buds.
- eythian 6y agoPretty sure that'd be in violation of things like GDPR and risk netting them fines. Also, why would they add you to a list of "people interested in other brand headphones" when you sign up because you're interested in theirs?
- lonelappde 6y agoGoogle already does targeted advertising and operates under GDPR.
- eythian 6y agoUsing personal data given to them for purpose A for purpose B is frowned upon. It's not just about targeted advertising.
- ur-whale 6y agoIt's worse than that. If you try to buy a product from the US Google store via VPN to have it shipped as a present to someone who lives in the US, it still doesn't work at all unless you have a freaking US credit card with a US billing address to pay with. This has been going on for years, and what happens when you hand over a project to a PM who has apparently never owned a passport.
- amelius 6y agoAt least their products aren't in the "beta" stage almost indefinitely anymore.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hocuspocus 6y agoMost of their hardware kinda is, though not explicitly.
- fishbacon 6y agoAccessing the link from Denmark just takes me to a generic google products landing page with no mention of a Google Pixel Bud. Found this page https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_buds https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_buds which links specifically to the US store where I can see the price (for the US) and specs.
- aorth 6y agoYes this is a better link for those of us who aren't accessing the web from a US IP address. Thanks.
- encom 6y agoVery OT, but I can't wait for this web design fad to go away, where every element is animated and stuff flies around and fades in from every direction. It's like 90's GeoCities, but with more whitespace. Also, I have a Radeon 5700XT GPU, and scrolling is somehow still choppy.
- runawaybottle 6y agoI don’t think it’s going away. A better question might be why are browsers still so slow that it can actually be slowed down by pictures and dom elements triggering re-layouts, or scrollling, or animations? Maybe let’s just give up on browser apis and start building websites with DirectX/OpenGL. I’ve seen amazing UIs in a lot of pc games that do all sorts of interesting things with the UI, and I’ve rarely seen those UIs have jank, or stutter.
- tsimionescu 6y agoTo be fair, very few companies even try to launch products worldwide, or even in a majority of countries. A lot of the time, they can't even launch in the entire EU. Apple seems to be doing better, but Microsoft, Google, Sony and Nintendo are all very bad at this (to name a few I've had problems with).
- hocuspocus 6y agoThey could easily work with local distribution channels (electronics stores, online retailers, carriers, ...) They somewhat do that already in some countries. I don't understand why nobody at Google cares about the image of their hardware lineup when you can buy cheaper products from 2nd-tier Chinese brands pretty much everywhere in the world. Even if I want to spend a premium to get the true Google experience, I can't!
- fernandotakai 6y agosamsung does it, and they are smaller than google (money wise) i still don't understand how google cannot just improve their hardware branch.
- axegon_ 6y agoYes, this is very annoying. Personally I have a Pixel 2(which I might consider swapping for 5 later this year, depending on what they throw in it) but this is a pure joke. I got mine about 2 months before the Pixel 3 was released and even then, almost a year after it's official launch, it was nowhere to be found in most countries. My phone before that just gave up and I happened to be on a holiday in Poland and by pure coincidence the Pixel 2 was available in one of the large retailers. Mind you, it wasn't available in any of the shops they had in Krakow(second largest city) so they shipped it from Warsaw. I can understand it not being available in small countries like Bulgaria in my case. There are one or two shops where you can find them for almost double the price which is a joke to say the least. And yes, in all these years I've only seen 2 or 3 other people rocking Pixels. But come on.... Poland? They have a population of almost 40 million... And this is their flagship hardware product, I'm not talking about things which are much more trivial, like buds or whatever.
- 72deluxe 6y agoI could be wrong but I get the feeling they are very USA-centric.
- axegon_ 6y agoOh, they absolutely are. And it would be fine if they were clear about it(which they aren't). You know, "this is our first market, we are currently in the process of negotiating/developing the feature for other regions, stay tuned" is perfectly understandable for me. I'm aware many people would freak out about something like that but as far as their hardware products, they are not aimed at the marketing-manager-with-a-macbook-pro-on-the-front-table-at-Starbucks types. In 99.999% of all cases, those people wouldn't care about a Pixel or it's existence. And in reality the only people who would make a deal out of it. I'm 100% certain that the average Pixel user would be perfectly fine with it. The Pixels are absolutely brilliant products and I am in love with mine, even if it's almost 2 years old now. But imagine my reaction when I opened Google play and I saw the text "This app is incompatible with all of your devices." regarding Android pay... On a brand new Pixel? A text which is still there mind you. Their support was very open about it and they did say it's a regional restriction and nothing to do with the phone itself but still... This is just one example but there are plenty of others on the list.
- crazygringo 6y agoDo you realize how insanely hard that actually is to do? It's not like you just localize some webpages and add a currency option to your payment. You've got to deal with certification, taxes, customs, warehousing, shipping partners, warranties, refund, and all with wildly varying levels of government agency cooperation and efficiency. Apple is the only consumer company I know of who does this well, because it's their main business and they have the money and have gigantic teams of people who do this as their main job. And even then people complain about the sometimes vastly higher worldwide prices. Now Google obviously does manage to eventually get these products out internationally. But it's pretty understandable that they sell in the US as soon as they can, and also can't necessarily predict the exact date they'll be available elsewhere. (And yes you can work with local distributors, but that doesn't solve all problems, presents its own set of complex challenges, and sometimes may simply not be economically viable -- e.g. their cut will make the product non-profitable, and there isn't a market to sell at a higher price.)
- hocuspocus 6y ago> (And yes you can work with local distributors, but that doesn't solve all problems, presents its own set of complex challenges, and sometimes may simply not be economically viable -- e.g. their cut will make the product non-profitable, and there isn't a market to sell at a higher price.) Cry me a river. I can buy a $150 Nokia at the electronics store down the road, but somehow it's too hard for Google to sell its Pixel lineup (which is not cheap by any means) and make a profit? They bought a chunk of HTC 3 years ago. HTC has known how to distribute their products for nearly two decades.
- DevKoala 6y agoClearly Google sees your part of the world as a third rate market. You should treat their brand the same way. In the USA, the perception isn't of Google as a quality brand. More of an also-ran. PS: I love their cloud services. I just don't know why they keep insisting on trying to make their hardware happen.
- JakeTheAndroid 6y ago
- WhyNotHugo 6y agoOn the Dutch store the product is not even there. There's simply no mention of it at all. The above link works, but just shows other products.