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Google Plans Cheaper Smartphone To Draw Users Into Internet Empire (nikkei.com)
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.
How about a mid-level smart phone? Maybe in the $300-$400 range? Maybe it could have a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm jack? Maybe you could call it something like Nexus?
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.
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.
I bought a bunch of these phones for the kids, wife, and my personal phone. Got everything you need for 300 bucks in the Android ecosystem.
Back when LG's flagship G4 was released, I got one a few months later and overpaid for it (unlocked) and it was still under $700 I believe. AND it had a removable battery, SD card slot, headphone jack, just about everything I wanted in a phone (except updates from LG). Yes, it did bootloop after a while but LG replaced it and it's been fine ever since.
12:50 - press return.
I'm not sure where this article is coming from, Google already had a nice low end phone called the Moto-G, though Motorola was since sold off. So this isn't a new strategy of Google's in an attempt to take advantage of Apple's price mis-step.
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Motorola makes some pretty nice midrange phones, that are close to stock Android anyways. Just take a Moto G7 and slap a pixel logo on it. Of course, Google will probably be stupid and insist on shipping something that lacks an SD card slot & headphone jack.
At the $800 price point, it should come with free connectivity. That is the problem with smartphones in the world of today. You pay an exorbitant price to have the latest/greatest gadget only to pay even more over the life of said gadget in being connected than the original price of the gadget.
The Nexus 5 was the last decent google phone
It's almost not worth having a smart phone because it does everything including the kitchen sinks work.
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/...
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!
More Indian street shitters on the Internet!
You can give away smartphones for free, it wouldn't make much difference.
It's the damn carriers that are expensive, especially in Canada.
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.
#DeleteFacebook
They talk about drawing more users into Google's internet empire as if cheap Chinese phones are not already loaded with Google's entire standard array of apps and spyware.
To lure more suckers (product) into Googleâ(TM)s vast tracking and data mining for sale to companies that want to sell to the suckers.
Removable battery.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
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.
Can't get more data unless you 'recruit' more cattle, er, I mean customers for your phones.
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
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm surprised that Apple hasn't clued into this. Google will fark it up to be sure, but think about the successful phones:
The iphone does everything (arguable except making calls) well. No sacrificed user experience. This means, if I switch to Android, I not only will have to get a top-tier one to have performance, I'll have to research who has the most open software, what I need to do to secure it, and be willing to live with a moderately (or heavily) steeper fall off in price once I "drive it off the lot".
Now, if you start with a list of call/text making standards and use the best chips etc. put enough memory in, good battery life and then pick ONE thing to do REALLY well (like send e-mail or surf the web). Make sure it's really well built/works near perfectly, THAT will be the next huge step forward.
An example of what NOT to do is from Amazon. I've owned several Kindles -- entry to flagship and they were one-trick-ponies, but what a trick. Easily my favorite "thing" I've owned. On a 'deal' I bought I Fire and whoa . . . it was literally good at NOTHING but did everything -- it wasn't even good at being an android device and seemed created SOLELY to sell me crap, after I bought it. Fire Stick was the same thing. Pair Prime Video with other services I have, run it on an AppleTV (probably does this on Roku and other boxes but not sure) and it's finally usable, since search and "trending" only shows what I have subscriptions to.
Seriously, if they brought the CrackBerry back with incredible call making abilities (e.g. works better than most flip phones) and a modern re-tool to manage e-mail/contacts and compartmentalize a business, home and social life, they'd make a mint.
I'm afraid that my trust for Google drops pretty regularly.
Android has become terribly fragmented, and everyone wants their own stores, payment mechanism, and ad infrastructure ... the entire purpose of Android is to make sure you are being served ads. And every company wants you using their stuff, which means every Android device is just a little different, and may or may not receive updates.
For me, most of the mobile market has degraded to the point where it's just a bunch of companies all tracking you, selling your information, and showing you ads ... which are provided by other people who are tracking you, selling your information, and showing you ads. Fuck that, it's assholes all the way down.
I'm not really interested in the current state of mobile devices, because we've lost all semblance of control over our information.
Google may want to get me into their ecosystem, but no longer give a fuck. I'll do my interwebs on my desktop machine, where I can block all of the shit I don't want.
Nexus was previously Google's (+ Google's partners') premium brand which had mid-range prices. At that time, high-end phones like Apple's and Samsung's were still not outrageously expensive. Only in the past few years, after Apple raised its high-end phone prices drastically, did others like Samsung follow suit. Now that customers are balking at the sky-high prices of high-end phones is Google retreating to a lower priced phone. Just like it used to be.
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.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
draws people to its approved ad empire.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
There are already Android phones selling for as low as $50 in India to over $1000, so no matter what Google does they aren't going to open any new markets. Best case they steal sales from their Android partners. Competing against your partners never seemed like a good move for Google, but I guess Google figured "what are they going to do, threaten us with Tizen phones?"
At least if they only played at the high end like with Pixel they'd only sell a few million a year and wouldn't upset them too much. If they came out with a cheaper phone and sold 20 million of them, they aren't going to steal a single sale from Apple - people who wanted a cheaper Android phone already have plenty of options. Every one of those sales will be stolen from Samsung, LG, Huawei, etc.
They never focus on anything but data mining and advertising. Their products are always half finished because they always stopped at the point they can datamined and advertise.
I mean, look at Google music for a good example of what would happen if a company with too much money and lots of consumer influence made the world's most mediocre music service.
We had to pry a dark theme out of them. They could care less about proliferating the world's most fragmented operating system and leaving huge security holes behind.
The problem with being Google is that every crappy Android phone reflects poorly on Google and their entire business model kind of requires them to stay on people's good sides since their respectively asking to trade your personal data for low-end services.
if you had the truat one company to actually make products based on consumer needs and demands, it would almost certainly be apple and not the world's most prolific dataminer.
...Google, Facebook, Amazon all need to be broken up.
We all knew he was talking about current releases. The Iphone 7 is 2 years past release and the Iphone SE is positively ancient.
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.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.