Colour Options Available at Launch

As the leaks of a Red (and rumours of a yellow) Nexus 5 colour variant are becoming an increasing point of speculation, the question has to be asked -- why can't OEMs offer a gamut of colour options at launch, instead of doing so months later?

I suppose we have Samsung to place half the blame on for this, as they (to my knowledge) started this trend of adding new colours to their Galaxy SIII, such as Auburn Brown, Garnet Red and Sapphire Black to name a few, and some later than others. They've continued this with the S4 and Note 3 line, and OEMs like HTC and LG have followed, with the One and G2 recently seeing additional colours made available. Now, in the case of the G2 at least, the Red and Gold editions are in celebration of Chinese New Year, which makes sense, but for the others, it doesn't hide the fact that early adopters of devices will likely end up peeved off (for lack of a better term) if one of their colour preferences was made available later on.

This certainly isn't an immediate issue for those said adopters, as the determined will either sell or trade their device to obtain the desired colour, or put up with the drawback and continue to live with their colour pick.

You might ask then, why is this topic even worth raising then, and well yes, while it's likely OEMs only play these tricks to garner more interest in the device as its sales may be slipping, it doesn't show decency towards those who had purchased without the colour incentives as an option.

Motorola have been doing the customisation, and colour options right. Available from the get-go, AT&T customers at least, had access to the array of colour options -- which would later be available to other carriers, and off contract. While Motorola are themselves somewhat guilty of releasing their natural wood-backed options only very recently, we at least knew well from the moment the Moto X was released, that Motorola were having troubles with the material, and that there was a foreseeable release of these wooden options in future.

There was no real pulling the wool over anyone's eyes. Everybody who kept in the know, knew to expect the wood options at some stage, instead of coming across leaked images and a long line of comments reading "why didn't they just have this from the start?", and even though they were released to much wonderment and awe of custom Moto X owners everywhere, at least the had the benefit of colour and trim options they chose to keep their hearts in check.

The Nexus 5 debacle isn't so much an issue. Thankfully, there are some after-market retailers who make pretty stunningly cut, and finished skins for the Nexus 5, which accentuate the Nexus logo and shape of the phone well enough. Unfortunately, it's not the same story for every device -- and depending on how authentic you believe a skin should look in comparison to the real-life colour alternative, you mightn't be too pleased. Not only that, but the Nexus 5 leaks show a colour-coordinated earpiece grille, on the red model, like that of the matte black and white models -- which is something that can't be rectified with a skin.

What should OEMs do then? Well provided it isn't a special edition phone which would warrant a later release -- they should see to it that they have every colour option they can muster available as early as possible, if not on the same day as the device itself. Why do this, when their efforts to increase sales with the introduction of these colours later on will be lost? Well dare I say, Apple have never found the need to introduce colour options later on in the life of an iPhone, and they still sell. People however, love options, and while cases and skins can change that, there's nothing like using a phone bare in a colour you love because you bought it that way.

Motorola offer limited-time sales on the Moto X when they want potential customers to pounce on one, and though the price of the Moto X has come down significantly in itself these last few months, at least current owners can be satisfied enough that they have a phone colourised in a style they appreciate, rather than being caught off-guard later on by a colour they'd been wishing was available from the start, and expected to pay full-price for it if they want it so bad.

I lack the funds to purchase a red Nexus 5 and sell my own for a loss, even though I desire one so badly, and for that I must ask "why didn't they just have this from the start?".