Consumers tired of the “sold out” message for Google’s Nexus 4 shouldn’t see it for too much longer: LG is boosting production of the unlocked, no-contract Android smartphone. In an interview with Challenges, Cathy Robin, LG’s director of LG Mobile France, stated that the company is working to bring more handsets to market, noting that it takes about six weeks to ramp up production.
There’s been much finger pointing between Google and LG on the limited Nexus 4 stock and according to Robin, Google simply didn’t anticipate the high demand. She says that in the U.K. and Germany, demand was 10 times higher than Google expected and that LG will build as many phones as Google requests.
It’s not actually that surprising to me that Google would be unsure of how many phones to build. The company simply doesn’t have the amount of hardware experience that Apple, Samsung and other top-tier hardware vendors have. But at $ 299 to $ 349 for the phone, depending on storage capacity, Google really should have known this would be a hot seller. I reviewed the device and found it to be superb, with modern-day hardware plus the benefit of always running the latest version of Android.
Regardless of who’s to blame or where you live, it sounds like the stock of Nexus 4 handsets should be rising by mid-February. The next question is: Will that even be enough to meet demand or will the smartphone see shortages again soon after that?
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