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.
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.)
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.
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.
Either way, HTCs supply chain is way different than Googles even with acquisition. And there is no way to know if Googles pre-existing processes would allow them to leverage HTCs distribution effectively if they own it (which I doubt).
You're comparing different things. What Nokia phone are you buying for 150 in your country? Nokia isn't a US company like Google. Nokia if Finnish. So it'd seem likely they'd have figured out EU distribution because they exist in the region and align with EU processes before NA.
Nokia has basically always produced hardware they've needed to ship. Google started as a software company that just so happens to deal in a few hardware projects. When they first bought the Motorola patents they crashed and burned hard on their hardware. And this was after their initial Nexus launch.
If you cannot get a Pixel in your country it's probably not because Google decided they can't make a profit on the phone. It's likely a restriction in shipping they don't care to get around yet, the demand for their devices aren't high enough for them to solve distribution issues, or they just don't care that much about their hardware businesses.
Why should I care about how Google's hardware business operates? They sold their first Nexus phone 10 years ago, how many more decades will they need to learn?
> or they just don't care that much about their hardware businesses
Then they should just stop pretending. The Pixel branding and pricing is a joke. At least American customers can wait until the phones inevitably reach $400-450 six months after their launch.
Google has the resources to do better, so let's stop making excuses every time they fuck up the execution of a product launch because they're too cheap to do it right.
Selling a newer version of a product in a country where the old version is already being sold is not an issue for small companies, and it shouldn't be for google.
I have never had any issues buying Samsung, OnePlus, Apple, or any other brand devices no matter the device category.
In fact last time I wanted to buy a google device (the original pixel phone) I was on the waitlist for almost 2 months before I walked to the apple store and bought an iPhone - and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
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.
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.
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...
Found this page 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.
Also, I have a Radeon 5700XT GPU, and scrolling is somehow still choppy.
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.
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.
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!
i still don't understand how google cannot just improve their hardware branch.
The above link works, but just shows other products.