Google's Nexus 4, 7, 10 Strategy: Openness At All Costs

MrSeb writes "There have been plenty of rumors about how the Nexus program was going to grow and change with this year's announcement. Now that we have all the details, it looks like almost none of them were right. There is no Nexus certification program, and the dream of multiple Nexus phones seems well and truly dead. What we do have is a range of device sizes with the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10. However, the Nexus program has been altered in one important way: we know what Nexus means now. There can no longer be any doubt: a Nexus device is about openness first and foremost. Last year the technology sphere was busily discussing whether or not the Verizon Galaxy Nexus was a 'true' Nexus device. This year we have an answer: a Nexus controlled by a carrier is no Nexus. Rather than get in bed with Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T to produce an LTE version of the Nexus 4, we have HSPA+ only. Even the new Nexus 7 with mobile data is limited to this enhanced 3G standard. And then there's the pricing: The super high-resolution (2560×1600) Nexus 10 tablet starts at just $399; The Nexus 7 is dropping in price to $199 for a 16GB tablet; The Nexus 4 with 16GB of storage is going to sell for $349, exactly the same as the old Galaxy Nexus was until yesterday. To put this into perspective, the LG Optimus G, which the Nexus 4 is based on, sells for $550 without subsidy. Google is pushing the idea of openness with the Nexus devices, but it's not an entirely altruistic endeavor. By giving us cheap and open devices, Google is making sure it's in control — not the carriers. That's better for the consumers, but it's also better for Google."

Comments

Openness

[Anonymous Coward]

If it was all about openness, then why no micro sd slot

Re:Openness

[dmacleod808]

I presume "open" refers to the software stack, not the hardware.

Re:Openness

[Artraze]

I had a big post but my browser crashed. So I'll post an abbreviated version:

First: MTP on the system partition is a good thing; the partitioning was stupid. However, that is totally orthogonal to having an SD Card with mass storage.

For me, the big thing is that I personally use my phone as a thumb drive that doesn't take up space in my pocket and can view the files on it. SD Card means easily upgraded storage for cheap. Mass storage means not MTP idiosyncrasies like dropping a file it doesn't like or a .svn directory, etc. Support for MTP is also pretty spotty and generally a pain vs mass storage. MTP costs a lot in terms of flexibility and compatibility.

But this:
> If I *really* wanted to go gung-ho with music for some reason I had a perfectly capable MP3 player that was even better than my phone (battery life, etc) for that purpose

Yeah, well I don't. I don't and I don't want to have to buy one and I don't want to have to carry one and charge one and sync one.

> Once I shifted my expectations to match my reality, it ceased to bother me.

This is a total non-point. Why not shift your expectations to be okay with a cheap 2GB music player and a feature phone with a EDGE connection? Or to a string and a carrier pigeon? An SD slot isn't just possible, but present on many devices. Many cheaper devices, even. The fact that people would need to adjust their expectations when their expectations for a several-hundred dollar device are so easy and regularly met elsewhere is ridiculous. It might be a trade-off they are will to make, or a deal breaker that sends them elsewhere, but to pretend that it's their fault for wanting a fairly ubiquitous feature? Outrageous.

Re:Openness

[spire3661]

The problem with your summary is that you learned to live with the limitations. A nice anecdote, but useless for the rest of us that are storage hungry. Its nice that you came to a realization you dont need X amount of songs on your device, that doesnt mean the need for massively more storage on a tablet isnt there. You would deny choice because you are too unimaginitive to figure out what a tablet with a huge local buffer could do.

one caveat

[killmenow]

By giving us cheap and open devices, Google is making sure it's in control -- not the carriers. That's better for the consumers, but it's also better for Google.

That's better for the consumers for now. But in the long run there's no more reason to trust Google than the telephone companies where power is currently concentrated. Once all the power is in Google's hands (if they get their way) it's not so good for consumers anymore.

Re:one caveat

[Gary]

Worst case scenario, Google gets all the power. Is that better or worse than the phone companies having full control?

Ideally we'd have good healthy competition, but I'll take Google over AT&T any day.

Re:one caveat

[AdmV0rl0n]

No, you only need to understand this is at least partially wrong. The carriers *want* you to buy a phone today, and seemingly are happy for it to arrive tommorow, and have problems from the following day. This equates to the idea of contracts where end users can't wait to get a new phone, rinse - repeat. In this regard, the carriers are not your friends, and don't want to be, They only want you to pay them the money, and get a new contract.

Google Nexus devices are likely to get updates and changes, irrespective of the evil shit carriers pull - or lack of effort on their part in none evil cases. I still have Samsung devices that T Mobile either won't update, or the updates come months and months late. Or you simply get told they can't be bothered to work on the update, get a new handset.

So - for now - I'm glad Google are attacking this problem. The carriers need the lesson.

Re:one caveat

[bluefoxlucid]

It's a good business strategy. Don't make your business a charity; make your business operate on strategies that are actually powerful business motivators, good for the business, but also good for the consumer. Don't just tempt the consumer; keep them from ever leaving. Make sure only wingnuts have much to say about how horrible you are.

The only concerns about Google are quite constant: they're an information trafficking company. They traffic information. Information to design ad campaigns, information to present ads to the consumer. Their base of information grows with each new service--and every time you opt into a new, useful service, you know the cost. The complaint of Google's ever-expanding reach of information gathering is mostly smoke and mirrors: this is what Google DOES, it's the same as when we were just using search. It's bigger, but not more sinister; if it's inexcusable now, it should have been toxic when they were tiny.

Google's best business plan is to make sure their ever-expanding empire is always profitable, but never really threatening. They need to not scare off the consumer. By keeping strict controls on how they provide their services--their real services--they avoid a greater consumer concern. They don't want to be the source of your six hundred phone calls per week from credit card offers; they want to be quiet, unknown, and harmless. They want to have to hide things just for business reasons, to protect from their competitors; they want as little to hide from the small consumers--who could be offended and then leave and diminish the strength of their product--as possible, so that any discovery and release of information is overall non-offensive.

That's the best way to do it. Make sure your business is good for consumers by merit of being based on a strategy that's good for consumers. Make a man cut off his own arm for the chance to shed some of his own blood, rather than the chance to escape your tyranny. Only the insane will cut themselves off from you.

Re:one caveat

[metamatic]

Right now my options are:

1. Give complete control to Apple, who are already abusive assholes.
2. Give complete control to Microsoft, who are already abusive assholes.
3. Give complete control to the phone company, who are already abusive assholes.
4. Give very little control to Google, but maybe one day they'll start to be abusive.
5. Do without a phone.

From where I'm sitting, #4 looks like the least bad.

At the cost of storage, too

[SuperBanana]

Reaction on the Android forums has been pretty swift: no microSD card slot = fail, especially given that there's a paltry 8GB in some of the units. My iPhone 2G had 8GB of storage. It was about enough for my music and some apps. That was also 5 years ago. They're trying to force cloud storage onto you by giving you a pathetic amount of storage and eliminating expansion. Meanwhile, they're forcing Google+ instant-uploads on people to encourage them to use it. All of this means increased data usage and reliance on google for your storage needs, which means they're going to start monetizing it at some point in the near future.

Re:Screen size

[poet]

I agree completely. I have very large hands and a 4.7" is not a phone. I have a 4.3" phone and that is almost perfect but I could see where my SO would never be able to use it comfortably. All due complaints to Apple but I think honestly the 4" screen of the Iphone 5 is probably perfect for most hands. When I look at the Note 2 and the S3 and now Nexus 4 I am thinking to myself, how can I use this? I can only use it with two hands. That means it is a tablet, not a phone.

Re:No LTE, less space than a nomad

[shawn(at)fsu]

I had the same knee jerk reaction, but HSPA+ while not LTE isn't just 3g either. I'm I'm still considering picking this up if I can get unlimited data from a provider. I grow tired of big red and having to take what they give me. Having unlimited data with them just isn't worth it anymore. I was going to have to buy my next phone outright anyway just to keep that plan, so if I can buy phone without a contract for 299 instead of having to have one subsidized by a carrier and have to deal with their crap then i's still a compelling offer.

Re:Openness Bulshitness

[tuppe666]

We used to ramble about Windows, and now Android acts like the old windows system, the swiss cheese of security.

Apart from its not true. Security is a issue on EVERY platform, and Google have routinely stepped up security while allowing the...and I cannot empathise this enough the *option* of openness. Security has just become one of those words that Apple shareholders user to pretend that a closed ecosystem is somehow better...Its not it just means the company owns the device (and the content) not you. It means you get rubbish maps!

Re:Openness Bulshitness

[postbigbang]

The original poster has the qualities of a shill. The open system actually feeds Google's app control needs, and allows Google to continue its privacy-robbing policies, and total location and usage context control of users of the platform.

Yes, Apple does this, too.

It's why I'm hoping for BootGecko, and other "smartphone" operating systems that aren't built on business models that retain way too much customer information. Even Canonical with Unity is starting to bow to the Dark Side.

you have no control in the US

[kenorland]

In the US, carriers have full control over which devices they allow on their networks, and even if they didn't, the lack of a single wireless standard means that effectively you are locked in anyway. We need uniform wireless standards and a requirement to let people move freely between carriers.

Re:Screen size

[TheGratefulNet]

Tiny screens are awful they always were

or, just perhaps, your whole view on how to write gui's for them is all broken.

size matters and if I have to carry the damned thing, I want it small enough to fit in a pocket; a normal human every day pocket.

nexus one is ideal in size for pockets and hands.

the gui is all wrong, the resolution is wrong, but the size is ideal.

bigger is stupid for phones. tablets, I could care less about; but phones should be PORTABLE. you just want a tablet that makes calls; admit it.

Re:where is my hardware keyboard?

[TheGratefulNet]

the person who even SUGGESTED that backspace/delete and enter/return should be ANYWHERE NEAR EACH OTHER on a touch screen should be shot. just summarily shot.

and there would be much rejoicing; there really would.

Re:Screen size

[TheGratefulNet]

If you're old and not a cyborg just buy some strong reading glasses.

or, just consider this fact, THE GUI USED IS BROKEN, by design.

they took big screen concepts and the young kids (sorry, but I'm being blunt here) didn't understand all of the user base for the phones.

all of us who are getting older (happens to everyone, just you wait!) can't easily use the gui's that the kids, today are writing. and they don't get it, it seems, since the gui toolkits are not showing any signs of being usable by those who are over middle age.

I should not have to fight with my phone to get it to accept my input. I should not have to magnify everything to get access to controls. if I have to do that, you did the gui all wrong.

I know the young eyes out there will just write this off; but designing for HUMAN factors includes those whose eyes are not as sharp as yours. ignore us and you'll be ignoring yourself soon enough. like I said, we all will be there at some point or another; stop assuming everyone has great vision and great finger motor control over millimeter distances on flat glass.

Re:This Slashdot post is brought to you by Google.

[MachDelta]

Your choices are actually:
Apple's hardware + Apple's OS + Apple approved software
or
LG's hardware + Whatever ROM you like + Whatever apps you like

Re:Everything

[ArcherB]

Oh come on, 16GB should be enough for anybody.

Unless you are storing HD movies on your device, it really should be. Apps are relatively small and 16BG is five non-stop days of music at 320kbps MP3's without hearing the same song twice.

Re:Can recommend Nexus again.

[ArtDent]

I agree with you completely. The Galaxy Nexus was royally screwed up here in Canada, too. It wasn't available in the Play Store here. Samsung sold it through the carriers, but modified the firmware so that they, not Google, would be responsible for pushing updates. They behaved exactly as you would expect, introducing months of delay, and skipping several of the minor updates completely.

Of course consumers were never warned that they were buying anything other than "Pure Google", and many were rightly pissed. Their only recourse was to flash the original Google firmware, but that's not a reasonable thing to expect of the average consumer.

Watching it all, I was appalled. This wasn't the Nexus experience that I've been enjoying with my Nexus S. I'm so glad to see that Google was equally unimpressed. Verizon is out, Canada is back in the Play Store, and all's right with the world. And the price! Just wow.

Unless there's some giant hardware screw-up lurking, I will be recommending this phone to everyone. Alas, I fear that people won't understand the difference between an unsubsidized price and one that comes with thousands of dollars of contract commitment. $350 is more than $200, right?

Re:No LTE, less space than a nomad

[DF5JT]

You can't have that reliably in any phone connecting anywhere no matter the technology. The carries do not have the capacity to give you speeds in that level, you will end with a tenth of that in average if you are lucky.

Rubbish.

For the past 3 months my internet has come from wireless LTE with 100MBit down, 10MBit up at consistent speeds that put my previous cable connection to shame.

All this in a European capital with dense population and one of the highest rates of smartphones per inhabitant in the world. All this at 49 EUR a month with no data limit. And no restriction whatsoever; no URLs blocked, no services disallowed, streaming via p2p, VPN and ssh tunnels.

Re:Screen size

[squiggleslash]

So... you're saying you wear really small pants? Pants so small that a phone with a 5" screen wouldn't fit?

For reference, I actually regularly carry my Kindle Fire (that's a 7" tabletette) in my pant pocket. Insert various "That's what she said" type jokes here. The Fire just about squeezes in (shut up) but it does fit, I've not found cellphone large enough to be a problem - and I've had some big ones (I said, shut up) including two models of the Nokia 9000 series.

Seriously, I don't quite understand where this obsession with Zoolanderesque phones comes from.

Re:No LTE, less space than a nomad

[TheGratefulNet]

If you put your music on Google Music

never gonna happen with me. why the hell should I upload a list of my music to ANY corporation?

why? why feed their data model, ignore my own privacy and even risk record labels having info on me? none of that can be good.

oh, but you get a shiny! I forgot. its all worth it if they give you a shiny.