Whenever a company runs out of a product that’s been getting a lot of buzz, there is speculation that the shortage is manufactured in order to drive up interest. After all, if you can’t get it right away, you’re going to want it more, right? Well, how about if you don’t even take orders for it anymore?
Google appears to have legitimately run out of stock for the 16gb version of its new Nexus 7 tablet computer. Customers are now given the option of signing up to be notified by email when more are available but that’s it.
Essentially, the company was expecting the cheaper 8gb version of the tablet to be more popular so they made a lot more of those. In fact, you can still buy those. Instead the 16gb was the hit. It’s a nice problem to have, I suppose, especially when you’re trying to provide a big time competitor to the iPad. Indeed, this appears to have the best chance of being a major Android player. Still, it calls into question Google’s management of its own manufacturing supply chain when it’s caught so flat-footed, without an effective contingency plan.