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G2 stumbles coming out of the gate.

On the heels of the recent iPhone 4 debacle, "Don't hold it like that!" (antenna-gate) we have another PR problem in the works for T-Mobile with the release of the much anticipated G2. It appears there is much confusion between customers and T-Mobile support regarding the specs of the handset that was sent to pre-order customers.

The official launch date was supposed to be this week, but existing customers were allowed to pre-order the handset, and those actually were delivered on Friday 10/1/10. Even this seems to be a point of confusion since new owners have been calling into T-Mobile customer support, and some are reporting that the support folks were not expecting any handsets to be delivered until the official launch day, which hasn't happened yet.

Owners who have received the handsets (including myself) are reporting two problems. First the slide out keyboard seems to have weak springs. If you horizontally hold the top part of the handset containing the LCD, but not touch the lower half containing the keypad, the whole lower half of the device "droops" down and separates from the upper portion of the device. This has already been well documented on the internet with pictures showing the problem.

No big deal, "Don't hold it like that!".........This issue is more of an anomaly instead of a serious problem since it doesn't really impact the use of the device. If you hold it exactly a certain way, gravity pulls the keyboard out.

The second problem seems to be more serious. The specs of the G2 state that the internal storage of the device is 4 gigs, yet all of the early receivers of the device are reporting a much smaller number showing on the settings screen that details available storage. Here is the screen from my own device:

Instead of seeing something close to 4 gigs, instead there is a number of 1.23. Now the OS and pre-loaded apps all take up space but the difference between the two numbers is enormous and this launched an avalanche of speculation on what is going on.

Did they only ship a 2 gig version? Is the extra space hidden in some way reserved for special use? Is there a problem with Android 2.2 in that it can't report memory sizes larger than 2 gig? And on and on and on.

To date, T-Mobile has made a few errors in the handling of the situation:

1) People received devices on Friday. That meant that no one is around to handle any type of problem that might have came up over the week-end. Social Media has allowed the speculation to mushroom into gigantic proportions between Friday and now (Sunday).

2) There has been no "official" statement on the internet from T-Mobile regarding this issue. On Facebook they have what appears to be an unofficial statement made by the moderators saying what users are seeing is correct, yet there is no explanation on why. In effect they are saying "Don't hold it like that" similar to the way Apple was in denial about publicly admitting or providing information regarding the antenna problem of the iPhone 4.

3) There appears to me at least, to be some type of information suppression going on regarding the issue as it is being documented on the T-Mobile support forums. If you Google search for "t-mobile 1.23 memory", the first link in the search results is a pointer to the T-Mobile support forums and the post title seems to be "How much internal memory space is showing out of the box? Yet when you click on that link, you are taken to a screen inside of the T-Mobile forums that reads "The topic you are trying to access is not available". Guess what, it was 'available' on Friday.

And so it looks like the G2 has its own "Memory-gate" unfolding on the days right before the official launch of the device.

All of the escalating comments, speculation, and criticism could have been totally put at bay with a simple "official" statement from T-Mobile like the following:

"We have heard from a number of you asking about the memory configuration of the G2 that you just received in the last few days. We are investigating the questions and will provide a detailed response early next week."

That would have been all that was needed, and everyone would have remained calm until the official explanation was given. Somewhere along the line it looks like T-Mobile and Apple both underestimated the the immense power of communication provided by current day social media technology.

No response or a delayed response is a disaster. Now it could be that everything is fine with the G2 and the memory is just being used in some way not clearly described in the settings on the device. Or it could be there is a problem and in the worst case the devices need to be swapped out. The outcome is not really important at this point, the G2 already has a damaged reputation on the eve of its launch, and it all could have been avoided with a few lines of text.

It is a great example of how the balance of power has shifted from the manufacturer of products to the consumer. The new rules of the "Social Media Economy" state that is is better for creators of products to "come clean" or "respond quickly" rather than deny or provide a delayed response. What has happened to the G2 is a prime example of this phenomenon.

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