Like any good geek I headed out this morning to check out the latest gadgets hitting the market and today it just happens to be the new Windows Phone 8 handsets.
Since I am an AT&T customer from way back that is where I headed to check out the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X.
When I pulled up to my local store the first thing I saw in the window was a huge Nokia Lumia 920 banner so the signs were starting off good. I walked into the store and the staff were all wearing Windows Phone t-shirts – a second good sign.
I went to the area that normally features the top phones but in the primary display spot was a certain iDevice but right next to it was the Windows Phone display areas. The older Windows Phone handsets have been shuffled to the back of the store and the new Nokia Lumia 920 was right there on display as I expected.
I spent some time checking out the two display models they had, black and white 920’s, and was very impressed with the feel, responsiveness and new design of the phones. Compared to my 900 it has rounder corners and the curved screen is just awesome. I find the black phone has the same feel as my 900 which is a little dry if you know what I mean – almost slippery – and requires a pretty good grip. On the other hand the white 920 is much smoother and felt very good in my hands. I am just not sure I could do a white handset myself.
My next target of interest was the HTC 8X because I was going to consider upgrading my wife’s Samsung Focus which she still has from the original Windows Phone release in December 2010.
Imagine my surprise, after reading all the posts yesterday late about how the 8X was going to be on store shelves today, when I found the spots empty.
I asked the AT&T store clerk and he indicated that the shipment had not arrived and it was unknown when they would get to the store. I asked if it was just this store and he indicated it was actually widespread throughout the AT&T retail network.
I was able to confirm this with another AT&T store just a few miles away all though they indicated the HTC 8X handset could arrive anyday now.
So I did what any good tech blogger would do – I shared the breaking news with a fellow blogger since I was away from my computer and lacked the ability to get anything online.
Brad Sams from Winsyde quickly responded to a Twitter DM and published a post along with other indications that it was a widespread issue of no availability for the HTC 8X.
You can check out his post here – Where are the AT&T HTC 8X phones? Store shelves are empty.
It is a shame that AT&T could not insure the shelves were stocked with all of the new handsets for their network. Unfortunately, people usually blame the manufacturers or OS developers and not the carriers when things are not available in store.
