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Well, that didn’t last long. In less than a day, the highly-anticipated Google Pixel Buds went from finally being available for order to sold out on the Google Store. Only the white version was even available to begin with, but it is now alongside all the other colors as a waitlist-only accessory, and we’re left to wonder how long it will be before reinforcements show up.
The other stores that had listings up on Monday when the Pixel Buds went up for sale officially have all still held to a ‘coming soon’ position, so it is unclear if any of them ever had stock to begin with. Best Buy, B&H Photo, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon all have product pages up, but no one is indicating that they can ship at this point. The best you can currently do is pre-order and wait for an update.
I personally placed my order a few minutes after the listing on the Google Store showed up and my pair just arrived via FedEx. Additionally, we’ve had emails from readers saying they had luck getting them from local cell provider stores in person versus having them shipped. It is simply hard to tell whether these headphones are wildly popular, low in initial stock, or a combination of both. I’m betting on the latter, but I’m a bit disappointed if that is the case. While I’d love to think that demand has been out of control for the Pixel Buds, I’m a bit more inclined to think the likely culprit is low initial inventory.
With these earbuds being announced all the way back in October of 2019, I feel like even with the pandemic there’s little excuse for low inventory numbers at launch. Unfortunately, Google has been guilty of this many times in the past, so my gut tells me they are once again at fault, here. I’m hoping I’m wrong and we’ll find out later that initial orders for the Pixel Buds were simply through the roof, but either way you slice it, a highly anticipated Google piece of hardware has launched a bit late and is already out of stock. Hopefully that changes very, very soon.
Google Pixel Buds on Chrome Shop
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