Google Plans Cheaper Smartphone To Draw Users Into Internet Empire (nikkei.com) 100
Google plans to unveil its first lower-priced smartphone this year as part of an aggressive push into hardware that it hopes will draw more users into its ecosystem, Nikkei Asian Review reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. From a report: The U.S. internet giant is moving quickly to exploit the troubles currently besetting Apple, which has suffered disappointing sales of its new premium iPhone as consumers migrate to cheaper models and global smartphone sales tumble, industry sources say. Google's new smartphone will be its first non-premium model aimed at price-sensitive customers and those in emerging markets.
It is expected to be priced lower than Apple's cheapest iPhone, the XR, which starts at $749. The latest model in Google's own Pixel range, released last October, started at $799. Midrange to highend phones are priced at between $150 and $700, while low end models sell for less than $150, industry sources said. The new phone will be the spearhead of Google's drive to expand the hardware using its operating systems. New products planned for this year include smart speakers, wearables and web cameras, sources familiar with the company's plans told the Nikkei Asian Review. Google also plans to launch a new premium phone in its Pixel range, as usual.
It is expected to be priced lower than Apple's cheapest iPhone, the XR, which starts at $749. The latest model in Google's own Pixel range, released last October, started at $799. Midrange to highend phones are priced at between $150 and $700, while low end models sell for less than $150, industry sources said. The new phone will be the spearhead of Google's drive to expand the hardware using its operating systems. New products planned for this year include smart speakers, wearables and web cameras, sources familiar with the company's plans told the Nikkei Asian Review. Google also plans to launch a new premium phone in its Pixel range, as usual.
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This is how I got stuck with a Pixel 2. I loved the Nexus 5. No bloatware, just Android. But the hardware choices to keep plain Android keep getting more and more limited and more expensive. I think they dropped the name Nexus so people wouldn't complain about how expensive their new phones are in comparison.
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Check the Android One Moto x4. $149 (32GB) or $199 (64GB). https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Android-Factory-Unlocked-Phone/dp/B074VFRKZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550075604&sr=8-1&keywords=moto%2Bx4%2Bandroid%2Bone&th=1
Bought through Google FI, the $199 version gives $50 in service credit as well. Both myself and my wife have the X4 and it works great. Now includes Android PI as well (despite the page saying Oreo). As a full Google FI phone, it supports all major US carriers, so you can u
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One word: LineageOS.
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I'm still using my Nexus 5, though it's definitely showing its age by now: LineageOS updates have slowed to monthly releases, and they're still based on the 14.x series; and a few weeks ago, my power button got stuck and had to be replaced.
I'm holding out for a new phone that will give me the same benefits my Nexus 5 has -- namely, a low price, custom firmware support, and access to the Sprint network. If this new phone can give me those things, then I'll definitely consider buying it. (A headphone jack w
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I'm still using my Nexus 5. Works great. I can't see any reason to "upgrade". Runs all the latest protocols and the speed is just fine. I can watch movies, etc.
I just replace screens and batteries as necessary. It's cheap to fix.
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Re:How about.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Here is the problem.
Premium phones can cost about $1,000
a budget phone costs about $100
The problem is even though a premium cost about twice as much as a mid-ranges and ten times as much as a budget. The fact that for many peoples lives, these phones are integrated into their lives, they are going to splurge on the premium, because they can afford it, 1k may be an expensive purchase, but for the use out of it, it may be worth it to them.
The people who don't have phones integrated into their live would spring for the budget model. Calls, Text, Emails, and Simple browsing, is more then enough for their use in 2019.
Mid-Range is tough, because it would be mostly for the people who just need a more advanced phone for work, but would be happy with a budget phone. Because their life style doesn't demand a premium phone, however there are practical reasons, where a budget just will not do.
There were phones that were more expandable. Like the Moto Z. However they never really caught on. Wireless technology, availability and speed, have skyrocketed lately, so getting such expansion modules, like your SD card slot soon become a wasted investment.
Now as a tech guy, I would love to be able to tweak my phone, take a safe backup of the factory condition. Mess with my device until it is broke and restore back. But in reality that isn't going to happen, unless we want to live like in the 1990's where every phone is getting infected with viruses and spyware. Sure google is spying on us. But at least we have some degree of trust they will not blackmail us with the data they collect.
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I am sure some people do, they just want to show off their fancy new phones, to make them seem special. Much like how some people drive fancy cars.
However the difference between a Phone and a Car is the degree of price from Premium Luxary and low end.
We still have the same factors as with smart phones 10x budget cars, 2x mid range, 1 for premium. But the issue is how much paying for the cost will affect someones life.
Paying thousands per month for car, to have a premium car, will mean that a middle class
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Well, another problem is that even four and five year old smartphones can do pretty much everything most people need - even people whose smartphone is “integrated into their lives”.
So spending large amounts of money on a new, “premium” phone amounts to a large bling factor... and perhaps being able to play a handful (at best) of demanding games which might stutter a bit on older hardware.
Really, it’s very analogous to the laptop/computer market nowadays.
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The difference between a Cell phone which a Premium model peaks at around 1k vs a Laptop which could peak at around 10k, Desktops the sky is really the limit.
At high prices, there is a personal cost choosing Premium vs middle of the road.
If at the grocery store, they had the world best tasting Orange for $10 a piece, vs the OK ones at $1 a piece. And I was in a mood for an Orange, Chances are I may decide to splurge to buy the expensive one, at least once to know how the world best tasting orange taste like
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Couldn't agree more. You can buy a LG Stylo 4 which has a fingerprint scanner, MicroSD card, and (IIRC) a 3.5mm jack... and an unlockable bootloader. It doesn't have NFC, which would be a nice feature... but for a smartphone, it works decently. Add Nova Launcher, a root based firewall via Magisk, and disable bloated apps, and it works extremely well.
Why can't Google come out with a phone in this price range? Not every needs five rear cameras and 3 front ones. With a recession looming around the corner,
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Because the Stylo probably never gets updates - and Google's big advantage is as the only Android vendor that reliably provides them on a timely basis.
Google doesn't need to compete with Blu Mobile. They get the advantage of all those Blu Mobile users anyway. They need a mid-ranger to enhance their brand. They're not Apple, and so they can't charge fanboi prices and expect to be a major player. But they don't need to be everywhere just to be viable as a brand. Competing with Blu would probably hurt the
Well, Google must be a first world company. (Score:4, Interesting)
It is expected to be priced lower than Apple's cheapest iPhone, the XR, which starts at $749.
If this is the stick they measure "midrange phone" instead of the better Chinese models that sell for less than $200, I'll go out on a limb and predict that Google won't be getting too many customers.
Re:Well, Google must be a first world company. (Score:5, Informative)
It's also not Apple's cheapest iPhone. The cheapest iPhone currently being manufactured is the 7, currently selling for $449 USD. This has been Apple's pricing tier strategy for phones for more than a decade now, people shouldn't still be unable to figure this out.
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Two years older than the XR, and since we've reached something of a point of diminishing returns for phone performance for the sort of things most people do with a phone, it should be perfectly functional for most people.
That said, I think the XR, XS, and XS Max are overpriced. The XS Max, in particular, should cost $200 to $300 less and have 128GB instead of 64GB in the base model. So, a 128GB model for $799 USD or $899 USD instead of the current 64GB for $1,099.
Lest you think I'm anti-Apple, I bought a 25
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It's also not Apple's cheapest iPhone. The cheapest iPhone currently being manufactured is the 7, currently selling for $449 USD. This has been Apple's pricing tier strategy for phones for more than a decade now, people shouldn't still be unable to figure this out.
Because then we need to compare that to another 2 yr old phone which costs a fraction of its release price. The Iphone 7 was released for US$650... People have figured it out, they've figured out you're paying 80% of the launch price for 2 yr old hardware.
How expensive? (Score:5, Informative)
It is expected to be priced lower than Apple's cheapest iPhone, the XR, which starts at $749.
That's odd. I bought a bottom-end unlocked iPhone SE at Target in December for about $200. Required that I buy one month of pay-as-you-go service for an additional $30. Have they gone up that much since?
a quick search tells me retail is $399, but I can get one for $125: https://www.digitaltrends.com/... [digitaltrends.com]
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It is expected to be priced lower than Apple's cheapest iPhone, the XR, which starts at $749.
That's odd. I bought a bottom-end unlocked iPhone SE at Target in December for about $200. Required that I buy one month of pay-as-you-go service for an additional $30. Have they gone up that much since?
a quick search tells me retail is $399, but I can get one for $125: https://www.digitaltrends.com/... [digitaltrends.com]
Stop ruining his fantasy world with 'facts' ...
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Hrs quoting the article you fucking moron. Those aren't his facts.
Well if he quoted it he must have believed it ... you fucking salivating moron.
Obviously he was talking about new releases.. (Score:2)
I'm sure I can get a Pixel 2 for about $200 from some back room seller too. Being disingenious only makes you look like an idiot.
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Well, let's compare even more apples to oranges, then: my neighbor's kid got his iphone 6, 7 and 8 FOR FREE (from his mom, as she upgraded).
Discontinued, defective and obsolete items have been selling for less than their initial price for ages, but TFA and my comment aren't about those.
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Discontinued, defective and obsolete items have been selling for less than their initial price for ages, but TFA and my comment aren't about those.
Yes, but iPhone SE is not discontinued, nor defective, nor obsolete. In fact, my main criteria for a smartphone is the smaller the better-- I don't want to carry around a brick. The iPhone SE is pretty much the best smart phone on the market.
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but iPhone SE is not discontinued
Really? Why did Apple announce it in September last year, then and why is it not available from the Apple online shop?
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Yeah... I thought that Apple's cheapest iPhone was the SE, which I've seen on sale at Walmart for $99 in the past.
The phone is basically obsolete at this point, though. It needs a serious upgrade.
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Good. (Score:1)
I'm sure I'm not alone in that I don't need a phone in my pocket that costs as much as a low-to-mid-tier laptop.
Mostly what I care about in an Android phone is, that there isn't a bunch of uninstallable crapware on the device.
Just use the Moto G/X series (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: Just use the Moto G/X series (Score:2)
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Re:Just use the Moto G/X series (Score:4, Informative)
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I got my daughter the X4. Fabulous camera, excellent phone. My PH1 has a 1997 camera by comparison (just a bit jealous).
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True, all family had G2 years ago, last year my GF upgraded to the G6, but SD450 and the lack of NFC was a killer for me. I bought a Nokia 6.1 because it fitted all my needs, NFC, FHD screen, SD, ac wifi, audio jack, QC3.0, usb-c, 2 sims, AndroidONE so I get new version and update very quickly, very well solid design in a one-piece aluminium shell, etc. But the Nokia 7.1 is really a fabulous deal too for a couple $ more.
The Nokia 6.1 was $229 at BestBuy, you could not beat that for a SD630 phone!! Forget th
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That's pretty pricey (Score:2)
Moto-G (Score:2)
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I'm sure that they are talking about Google-branded phones, not just Android devices. But they're still wrong, because Nexus phones had lower MSRP than iPhones. Whoever wrote this article clearly knows exactly dick about smartphone history. Good for them, but someone else should have written this slashvertisement (autocorrect: slaveowner)
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No argument here. I've told people for years that the Nexus 5 hit the sweet spot. Big enough, but not too big for 1-handed use. Square sides which pretend to look like a thinner phone but made it easier to grip. While newer phones have some cute gimmicks, If I had a chance to get a Nexus 5 today with an updated processor and such so it ran the latest Android well I'd jump on it.
"Cheaper?" (Score:1)
I buy second-hand smartphones, usually for under $100. They're carrier-free and I can put whatever sim I want in there.
And turn off all Google tools.
Good luck beating that!
The phone is not the expensive part (Score:3)
You can give away smartphones for free, it wouldn't make much difference.
It's the damn carriers that are expensive, especially in Canada [mobilesyrup.com].
Here are the data-only plans from the three major carriers:
Rogers: $25/400MB
Bell: $30/500MB
Telus: $30/500MB
Yes, those are megabytes caps, in 2019. Not a typo.
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Don't give them ideas!
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You can give away smartphones for free, it wouldn't make much difference.
It's the damn carriers that are expensive, especially in Canada [mobilesyrup.com].
Here are the data-only plans from the three major carriers:
Rogers: $25/400MB
Bell: $30/500MB
Telus: $30/500MB
Yes, those are megabytes caps, in 2019. Not a typo.
Buy a 3UK SIM card and get 2 GB for £10 per month for use in Canada or 70 other countries (apologies, I don't know what the quid to loonie rate is and am too lazy to look it up but it wont be C$25).
As if cheap China phones aren't drawing already (Score:1)
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It might be defensive against Amazon. They tried to push hard with the Fire phone (and failed), but maybe they (or MS) plan to try again with another Android variant? Because both of those companies are willing to lose billions in subsidized hardware to try to get a piece of the smartphone market. I mean, they already spent billions, and I see no reason why (assuming they think they have a better plan) they wouldn't try again.
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What happened to their previous phones? (Score:5, Interesting)
Their Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 lines weren't too expensive. Except they didn't make enough to satisfy demand. Then they decided it would be more fun to make phone that cost $600 to $1000. Somewhere in there they got rid of Motorola, who now makes decent phones like the X4 selling for decent prices like $300 (oops, $250, oops, $200, oops, $150).
I was working there when they acquired Android, and I remember being really chuffed that they'd be able to bring decent software to the masses rather than skimming off the top - so I was pretty salty about it when they decided they're rather join the feeding frenzy at the top. Making an amazing $1k phone isn't rocket science, you just need to avoid errors, the existing companies like Samsung and Sony can push the boundaries there. Making a great phone for $200 is where the real challenge is, and it bothers me that Google simply abdicated that position. Instead of co-evolving hardware and software to make a tight fit at $200, they're off bloating things up with elaborate camera systems and voice recognition for the high end, then getting upset that the low-end devices ship with an older Android version.
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The digitizer on my E960 died, making it like every other piece of LG garbage I've ever owned. Until then it was great, but that was enough to put me off LG smartphones for good since it would have been expensive to replace. But you're right, they were $300 less than the Apple competition.
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Their Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 lines weren't too expensive. Except they didn't make enough to satisfy demand. Then they decided it would be more fun to make phone that cost $600 to $1000. Somewhere in there they got rid of Motorola, who now makes decent phones like the X4 selling for decent prices like $300 (oops, $250, oops, $200, oops, $150).
I was working there when they acquired Android, and I remember being really chuffed that they'd be able to bring decent software to the masses rather than skimming off the top - so I was pretty salty about it when they decided they're rather join the feeding frenzy at the top. Making an amazing $1k phone isn't rocket science, you just need to avoid errors, the existing companies like Samsung and Sony can push the boundaries there. Making a great phone for $200 is where the real challenge is, and it bothers me that Google simply abdicated that position. Instead of co-evolving hardware and software to make a tight fit at $200, they're off bloating things up with elaborate camera systems and voice recognition for the high end, then getting upset that the low-end devices ship with an older Android version.
It's just not true though, unfortunately. The Moto X4 is a terrible phone. It is outperformed by iPhones from 4 years ago. You are better off spending 300 on a brand new iPhone 7, or even 150 on a used one.
I agree the X4 could be faster. But it is TONS faster than the phone I had four years ago, the only reason my phone needs to be faster at this point is because Android has greater resource needs, because ... reasons? It's certainly not more capable.
Apple has done a great job both of making newer/faster devices, but also keeping older devices relevant. We have plenty of older iDevices around running current software simply because they work fine so we see no reason to replace them. I don't mean "work fin
Google needs more product to sell: YOUR DATA (Score:2)
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Sadly, the same applies to general computing these days also, with MS adopting the "google model". You h
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Well, that is just completely wrong (Score:2)
This is not Google's first lower priced smartphone. Before there was Pixel, there was Nexus. The Nexus 4 debuted at $299/349. Its timely competition, the iPhone 5, cost literally $300 more.
Article == hot garbage
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The Nexus 4 was like the size of an XBox.
Well, I'm the size of your ex's box. I have nearly NBA-sized hands. The real problem was that it was made by LG, which makes it a POS.
Give it away for free? (Score:2)
Why not give the phone away for free? Or as a part of some Google subscription?
Google has the power to get rid of carriers and banks, I wonder why they don't take this step into Cyberpunk Megacorp land. Right now I'd rather be ruled by Google than by some Chinese single party government.
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Ad company (Score:2)