ABT pulls Pixel Buds listing, sends out email with possible release window

The saga of the Pixel Buds continues today as the Illinois-based electronics outlet ABT has pulled down the listing we reported on just last week that contained pre-order abilities for all 4 colors of the upcoming wireless earbuds from Google. Those listings were by far the most complete product pages we’ve seen from a retailer up to this point and it really felt like they were a signal that the Pixel Buds would be released soon.

With Google I/O completely cancelled, there’s little reason for Google to hold out on the release of this new accessory, so it felt completely plausible that the ABT listing – complete as it was with the ability to fully take pre-orders – was a harbinger of an imminent announcement. Like other listings we’ve seen crop up in the past, however, it was not meant to be. Heading to ABT at this point, there’s not a trace of the Pixel Buds left on their site.

That’s not the entire story, however, as Reddit users are reporting having received an email from ABT that lays out a bit of a time frame for the arrival of the Pixel Buds in their warehouses. I can’t imagine Google wanted this info to go out, so not everyone may get these emails. The original post shares the actual email while another commenter below points out that they were contacted by ABT and told it would be July before the black version arrived. Changing the color to white for the order adjusted their date range more into line with the original post: late April to early May.

I pre-ordered the black version and was told by ABT that it won’t be released until early to mid July. They asked if I wanted to change my order to the white model which is releasing as stated above.

Not sure if I want to switch or wait it out …..

EggNogg421 – Reddit

We have little reason to doubt the validity of these claims, so it seems that we won’t see the Pixel Buds until later this month at best. It is impossible to know exactly how fast ABT was set to get their allotment of Pixel Buds upon their release, though, so we can’t fully deduce the release date based on this email. For instance, Google could release the earbuds on April 15th (just making up a date. Don’t get excited.) on the Google Store first and get them to retailers soon after.

This type of behavior with non-phone devices seems to be par for the course for Google, having multiple ship dates on recent devices like the Pixelbook Go as noted in our own article about the pre-order status of that device just 6 months ago:

We’ll save our final verdict for our full review but if you’re ready to pull the trigger, pre-orders are available for the “Just Black” model from a number of retailers. According to the Google Store, the Go will ship on the 28th of October which is reflected on Amazon with a “release date” of the 27th. Best Buy, on the other hand, is showing an availability date of November 4th but that could change.

If memory serves, it only ended up being about a 2 week gap between availability in the Google Store and everywhere else, but that is enough of a separation that the ‘late April/early May’ window indicated by the ABT email could signal a roll-out of the Pixel Buds from Google’s own store the 3rd or 4th week of April. Either way, it looks like we’re likely just a few weeks of these highly-anticipated accessories becoming something we can simply go buy.

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