It has been a little over a week since Google announced its new centralized distribution model for the Nexus One phone and there are already reports of customer issues. In spite of the Google spinmasters, there are numerous customer complaints related to poor 3G connection, confusion on return policies, and other issues. Here is a link to an article on The Industry Standard that provides the details:

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2010/01/12/google-t-mobile-respond-nexus-one-customer-complaints?source=nlt_weekly

It will indeed be interesting to note developments by both of these firms in 2010.

Bob Ferrari

Nice starting points for discussion on both items. In regards to Wal-Mart, I imagine the early analysis and pilot categories launched across the regions is positive in achieving cost reductions without a major sacrifice in quality / timeliness.

Like you infer, there will be certain advantages around security and quality by keeping certain items local or regional. If these central hubs are servicing a larger diversity of end consumers, there are more chances of getting things wrong. But having such distribution under one roof does provide greater control and less overhead for providing the necessary oversight to maintian the correct standards.

It will be interesting to see what Wal-Mart news comes out this year and, if it is negative, whether it is traceable back to this strategy.

Cheers,

Shawn