Google unveils Nexus 9, Nexus 6, Lollipop and more

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

I paid $630 for my unlocked Nexus 4 for example. And that was on the cheapre side for high-end phones. Over $800 is not uncommon.

I paid the equivalent of about $900 for my iPhone 4. But I'm still using it four and a half years later, so I reckon I've had good value for money out of it. Well under $1 a day for something that gets used multiple times every day.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I paid the equivalent of about $900 for my iPhone 4. But I'm still using it four and a half years later, so I reckon I've had good value for money out of it. Well under $1 a day for something that gets used multiple times every day.

That's a much better measurement of value than up-front cost alone.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by tompe

Maybe because price is decided by traditions and what people are willing to pay?

My point is that a few new smartphone companies have been outpacing the giants in Korea and China by offering similarly spec'd hardware at half the price -- particularly Xiaomi. A few of the thirteen new smartphone companies in Asia poised to compete with Samsung might be operating at a loss, but probably not all. Those companies make companies like Samsung appear to be pursuing luxury pricing.

Meanwhile, Google just announced a lot of new hardware and software. I'll say it a second time:

Why is everyone obsessed with talking about the price of the Nexus 6?

I'm more interested in the Nexus 9, which is far less expensive than the N6 despite its size (though the screen dimensions seem odd).

And as I said, HTC versions of the Nexus line are going to be fun to play with whether you actually want to buy those devices or not.

I'm shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- at the lack of technofetishism on this thread.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

If the $600 price range is a fait accompli for unlocked high-end smartphones, then why does China now favor smartphones with comparable specs for half the price? I've had the chance to compare my $349 OnePlus One with an unlocked S5 and am still glad to have opted for a cheaper phone with the same processor. The quality of the OPO's camera is the only real drawback; the lack of bloatware and privacy shredding is liberating.

Besides, why is everyone talking about the price of the Nexus 6? Personally, I'm more interested in the Nexus 9, which is far less expensive than the N6 despite its size (though the screen dimensions seem odd).

Besides which, HTC versions of the Nexus line are going to be fun to play with whether you actually want to buy them or not. The speakers will be clearer and the sound more cinematic than the N7 and N10's. Besides, we might see a significant price drop on the N6 in sixteen months.

Judging from their excellent work on the G3, it looks as though LG learned a lot from their collaboration with Google. I'm hoping that HTC will, too, and will be able to recover from their losses. I've always liked that company's approach.

This editorial:

So what gives?

Nexus has grown up. Its audience is no longer developers or hardcore Android nerds. Google doesn't need to drum up business for it. The Nexus 6 costs more both because the Nexus name can command a higher price, and because names like LG and Samsung and Motorola and Sony don't merit any kind of markup. If anything, the lack of an ugly Android skin is one of the most premium features you could ask for.

Meanwhile, there are more good, cheap Android phones to chose from than ever, if that's what you're looking for. I still think the Nexus 6 is grotesquely big. And I already miss the days when an off-contract Nexus phone was one of the best deals in tech. But in a way I'm glad Google finally decided to recognize its own worth. Less bloat shouldn't mean less value; it should mean the opposite. And the sooner smartphone makers that realize that, the better phones we'll have to choose from.

http://gizmodo.com/the-most-importan...ice-1646834317

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by tompe

I paid $630 for my unlocked Nexus 4 for example. And that was on the cheapre side for high-end phones. Over $800 is not uncommon.

I paid $249 for my unlocked Nexus 4. My upper limit for a smartphone is $300. Anything more is just not worth it; especially since I can get a 7" tablet with the same features in the $200~$250 range.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I paid $249 for my unlocked Nexus 4. My upper limit for a smartphone is $300. Anything more is just not worth it; especially since I can get a 7" tablet with the same features in the $200~$250 range.

Well, you cannot get the 7" tablet with the feature of being small and being able to operate it as a phone.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by tompe

Well, you cannot get the 7" tablet with the feature of being small and being able to operate it as a phone.

I don't use my Nexus 4 as a phone. To me, it's a 4.7" tablet. As to being small, cost is far more important to me than size.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I paid $249 for my unlocked Nexus 4. My upper limit for a smartphone is $300. Anything more is just not worth it; especially since I can get a 7" tablet with the same features in the $200~$250 range.

I know people who change their Android phones more often than I change my underwear . Perhaps they are paying less per phone than I paid for my iPhone, but they end up paying hugely more than I've paid.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Shane R

This editorial:

http://gizmodo.com/the-most-importan...ice-1646834317

I dont quite agree on that. All the bloat has the advantage of being bloat that is designed to work together. If it wasn't for differeing software features what else is there to distinguish one phone from the other? When you call it bloat you already show your own preference to less is more. Sure, you could gobble together your own system with exactly and only those features you like, except some of the bloat you cannot get even if you paid for it from elsewhere on a different phone.

Try to answer this then from a busines oriented viewpoint: If it truly was in the best interest of e.g. Samsung to ship their Android devices with only the unmodified vanilla Android without anything extra, then why don't they? They could save a boat load of money on developing all this customer unfriendly bloat by simply not doing it.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I dont quite agree on that. All the bloat has the advantage of being bloat that is designed to work together. If it wasn't for differeing software features what else is there to distinguish one phone from the other? When you call it bloat you already show your own preference to less is more. Sure, you could gobble together your own system with exactly and only those features you like, except some of the bloat you cannot get even if you paid for it from elsewhere on a different phone.

Try to answer this then from a busines oriented viewpoint: If it truly was in the best interest of e.g. Samsung to ship their Android devices with only the unmodified vanilla Android without anything extra, then why don't they? They could save a boat load of money on developing all this customer unfriendly bloat by simply not doing it.

It's called bloat because it's excess that usually goes unused. And yet the carriers and the manufacturers continue to foist it onto their (Android) customers.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Shane R

It's called bloat because it's excess that usually goes unused. And yet the carriers and the manufacturers continue to foist it onto their (Android) customers.

It is only bloat because YOU think so. It has happened more than once that a once "bloat only feature" made it eventually into a future version of Android. "Usually goes unused" means it is not for you. That it doesn't go altogether unused means someone finds it useful. Having choice is good - including the option to have more features preinstalled than you will use. Nobody ever complained about Photoshop having too many features. Photoshop has too many features for a single person to take advantage of all of them.

I happen to like Touchwiz, even though I don't like the app launcher that Touchwiz has. Touchwiz is more than just the app launcher. Guess what? The same app launcher (mine happens to be Nova) runs on all my Android devices - Samsung phones and Nexus tablets.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

It is only bloat because YOU think so. It has happened more than once that a once "bloat only feature" made it eventually into a future version of Android. "Usually goes unused" means it is not for you. That it doesn't go altogether unused means someone finds it useful. Having choice is good - including the option to have more features preinstalled than you will use.

The problem is that a lot of the bloat includes apps that can't (easily) be removed, as they are part of the carrier-specific OS version, and all too often they are just there to try to get you to purchase additional services from the carrier - they have no use at all without paying for those additional services. Meanwhile they take up space, and may have services running (draining your battery) even though they aren't actually doing anything for the user.

My last Motorola from AT&T had loads of that stuff on it. My current phone (Pantech Flex), however, doesn't, possibly because the Pantech uses a specific OS version of its own, instead of an AT&T crapware version. So while I rooted the Moto to lighten the load (the only way to get rid of those apps), I never felt the need with the Pantech because I can just turn off the special Pantech UI features and never have to see them, they take up little space, and they don't have a bunch of stuff running in the background.

[Shane R]

What CWatkinsNash said.

Bloat is usually carrier specific, not OS specific. With the OS, they're called 'features'.

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by tompe

We in Europe normally have to pay 1.5-2 times the price in the US. So from our perspective you are complaining about a price that still is lower than what we have to pay for phones.

I paid $630 for my unlocked Nexus 4 for example. And that was on the cheapre side for high-end phones. Over $800 is not uncommon.

For once, in the UK, the price was comparable to the US price. I definitely paid much less than $630 for my N4. As a result, the N6 price does seem quite high.

I may look at the geekphone if/when I need to replace my N4.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

For once, in the UK, the price was comparable to the US price. I definitely paid much less than $630 for my N4. As a result, the N6 price does seem quite high.

I may look at the geekphone if/when I need to replace my N4.

True, I remember that now since people from Sweden did import from UK so get the phone a bit cheaper.

The N5 is the first Nexus phone that have been sold by Google in Sweden so its price is much better ($420 for the 16Gig vesion). The price for N4 was set by LG.