UPDATED 11:01 EDT / DECEMBER 17 2012

Google Blames LG For Nexus 4 Shortage

In today’s mobile news roundup: Nexus 4 shortage blamed on LG; Over 2M iPhone 5 sold in China; Sprint buys entirety of Clearwire; and Instagram tweaks ToS for better Facebook integration.

Nexus 4 shortage blamed on LG

A lot of consumers in the UK are berating Google due to the scarce availability of their hit smartphone, the Nexus 4.   The people have spoken, and Google’s listening.  Their UK general manager Dan Cobley offers an explanation for the 4G shortage, stating that LG, the co-creator of the device, is the one to blame for the “scarce and erratic” supply, but also admitted that they too had their faults because of flawed communication.

What got the customers riled up is the fact that those who ordered early were told that the phone will be shipped in 3-5 days, but received no other notification, while those who ordered later received shipping notifications.  Though the apology was posted in Cobley’s Google+ page, it’s already been removed.

Over 2M iPhone 5 sold in China

Apple happily announced that their iPhone 5 launch in China was a huge success, selling over two million units just in its first weekend of sale.  And this December, they also announced that it will be available in more than 100 countries, making the iPhone 5 their fastest selling phone to date.

“Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products.”

Sprint buys entirety of Clearwire

Sprint announced that has entered into an agreement to acquire the rest of Clearwire stock that it doesn’t already own.  Sprint will pay $2.97 per share, or a total of $2.2 billion, which “represents a 128 percent premium to Clearwire’s closing share price the day before the Sprint-SoftBank discussions were first confirmed in the marketplace on October 11.”  Sprint already owns 51.7 percent of Clearwire and with this new agreement, Sprint would become the whole owner of Clearwire.

“Today’s transaction marks yet another significant step in Sprint’s improved competitive position and ability to offer customers better products, more choices and better services,”Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said.  “Sprint is uniquely positioned to maximize the value of Clearwire’s spectrum and efficiently deploy it to increase Sprint’s network capacity. We believe this transaction, particularly when leveraged with our SoftBank relationship, is further validation of our strategy and allows Sprint to control its network destiny.”

Instagram tweaks ToS for better Facebook integration

Instagram released their revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service that will take effect on January 16, 2013.  The new ToS will be implemented so that the service will supposedly function more easily under Facebook’s regime.

“Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used,” Instagram stated.

Instagram will be sharing “information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data” to Facebook and other services under the social giant’s umbrella.


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