Nexus 7 Tablet Launch Hampered by Delays, Snafus: Report

The highly anticipated launch of Google€™s Nexus 7 tablet has been marred by confusion over shipping dates and delivery status in the United Kingdom, according to several British technology publications and comments posted on the Xda developer forums, many of those from Android fans who have not received the tablet after preordering it through Google€™s online Play store. The source of the problem appears to be an order addressing snafu, which directs shipments to Gordon House, the building where Google Ireland is headquartered, replacing the intended first-line address with the Dublin location.

A report by The Inquirer, which interviewed the delivery company TNT, found Google had made additional shipping errors, with one Nexus 7 being shipped out to the address €œBasement flat, basement flat€ somewhere in London. €œBecause Google has sent out packages with incomplete addresses €˜thousands of customers€™ will be kept waiting for their deliveries while the firm carries out €˜recovery actions€™ to find the packages’ rightful addressees,€ the article stated.

In an effort to placate angry customers and offer a defense, Google issued an update on Nexus 7 preorders on the support page of the Google Play site. €œWe€™ve had incredible demand for our new Nexus 7 tablet and are shipping them as quickly as possible. When your device ships, you will receive a notification from Google Play with a shipping tracking number,€ the statement read. €œWe will have all orders placed through July 13 processed and shipped soon. Orders placed after July 13 will ship according to the quoted time frame when you purchased and we will update you with a tracking number when we’ve shipped. Thanks for your patience.€

Google said order processing across the pond had gone smoothly so far, with all Nexus 7 8GB orders made before July 13 processed and shipped. €œBy the end of day on July 19, we will have shipped all stand-alone Nexus 7 16GB orders placed through July 11, and upgraded these orders to overnight shipping,€ the update stated. €œWe will process the remaining standalone Nexus 7 16GB orders (those ordered after July 11 and through July 13) by the end of next week with overnight shipping. Orders placed after July 13 will ship according to the quoted time frame when you purchased.€

To say Google has a lot riding on the Nexus 7 is an understatement. The tablet is a direct competitor to Amazon€™s low-cost, 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet, as well as other 7-inch tablets flooding an increasingly crowded market dominated by Apple€™s iPad. But perhaps the most important factor is that Google intends the Nexus 7 to be a reference platform. The company bills it as being made for Google Play, and as such, it is tied into the cloud-based Google content store and into Google€™s cloud. Users can store their own content there and can pay for downloads of video, music, books and magazines, making it first and foremost a content consumption device.