It would be nice if Google would release some sales numbers on this. I'd imagine it would sell well in Europe where the lack of LTE is not an issue. I don't see it selling that well in the US, most people here get new phones every two years when their contracts are up at subsidized pricing.
I am almost done my three year contract with Bell. I don't mind them so I don't mind staying with them. I want the N4 and I talked to retentions about what I could get post-plan if I brought in my own phone. They seemed quite confused and couldn't give me any better deals than a new customer. If I had gotten one of their subsidized phoned on a new 3-year deal they would have been able to give me a better deal. I would even be willing to go on a 1-2 year deal with an N4 but alas they seem like they don't know how to deal with this situation.
I could just go with the Samsung Galaxy SIII which wouldn't be a bad phone but it wouldn't be carrying the vanilla Android but rather Bell's variant (which I am not sure how bad it is).
I've looked at other carriers, Koodo, Fido, Wind and Moblicity. Either their deals aren't any better than I have now or they have little coverage. Wind is much better than Moblicity in coverage so I am not sure how much roaming with them would cost me on average a month.
So I am not sure which way I should go with my new phone.
If you live in a covered area Mobilicity is awesome. I'm in Ottawa, and it's going to be $25 a month for text/talk/data (what Telus currently charges me $60 for). Even if you consider the amount of subsidy they provide, the price differential is so wide. They also recently added free roaming minutes every month (50 minutes), for when I visit my family.
I can't speak to Ottawa but in Toronto Mobilicity coverage in the areas they claim are covered is pretty awful.
Rogers charges you through the nose but I get LTE coverage almost everywhere and 3G coverage everywhere, while my Mobility friends have no data connection to speak of when in most buildings.
The Canadian carriers don't seem very interested in doing favorable deals for bring-your-own-phone customers.
Either it's still too small a segment or (perhaps more likely) they've figured out they can lock people in to more 3 year contracts if there's no difference in the month-to-month prices.
I've seen Bell occasionally do promos where you can take $5/$10 off any plan if you have your own phone, but not much besides that.
I'd be very happy to be told I was wrong and there was a way to get better pricing, BTW. :)
Why lack of LTE is not an issue in Europe?
Is the coverage in Europe smaller then in the US?
In Poland 35% population is covered with LTE, so I would assume rest of the Europe has at least that.
I would still like to see some sales data. While I wouldn't expect Google to do anything like this, there exists the possibility that a company could create the appearance of a massive sales by limited the supply and slowing their servers, effectively making people think the phone sold out in massive enough numbers to bring down their services. Artificial supply constraints is a well known and commonly used tactic to increase demand.
Again, I wouldn't say Google would go to these levels of showmanship just to sell a phone, but seeing actual sales data in front of you shows more pieces of the truth than not having the data.
Not only that but I'd like more companies to do the same thing Apple has done with stating units actually put into customer hands versus send off to sales channels/etc...
Would make it easier to guage/compare sales amongst the companies.
