Nexus 4 production issues and 'sold out' popularity explained by LG France
A few days ago a rather disturbing report said that LG has shifted its attention from the Nexus 4 to future devices, and therefore production of the fourth-generation Nexus handset has been stopped.
Coming at a time when plenty of Android buyers are still trying to get their Nexus 4 order in – the device has been sold out on Google Play in various countries for weeks now – the rumor was certainly surprising.
Meanwhile, LG has denied the report, and made further comments in France where Cathy Rubin, LG France's Mobile division director talked to Challenges.fr about Nexus 4 production, availability and sold out status.
According to the exec, Nexus 4 production has not been stopped, and it will be increased in the following months. Apparently it's not LG at fault for the lengthy delivery times but Google's.
The Search giant is said to have missed the mark when ordering Nexus 4 units. Google reportedly used sales data from the previous Nexus model to place Nexus 4 orders, but these numbers "were lower than the actual demand." Starting from mid-February, "there will no longer be any tension in the market," according to the exec.
Rubin was not willing to go on record on LG's and Google's deal concerning the price of the device. The Nexus 4 is very affordable, off-contract, compared to other high-end phones that offer similar capabilities.
Similarly she wasn't ready to reveal how many Nexus 4 have been sold to date, but it did say that the number hackers came up with a few weeks ago, or over 375,000 units, is "a lot lower than the actual figure."
However, she did say that the Optimus G, which is basically the Nexus 4's older, beefier (in terms of hardware) brother, did reach the 1 million sales mark since being launched a few months ago. Should we read between the lines that the Nexus 4 sold anywhere between half a million and a million units since being released?
Rubin also talked about LG' future plans, but failed to mention the existence of any future Nexus product – a recent rumor did say that not one but two LG Nexus devices would be launched later this year. But she did confirm that the Optimus G will get successors, with the G series being the company's "top-of-the-line-product."
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