Android smartphone showdown

TJ99 said:
Again, the SIII (and most other newish Androids) can do this as well. You can plug in lots of other USB stuffs too, even PS3 controllers and the like. I think cerebus has (surprisingly) got it right. There must be some strategy behind it, it can't be for practical reasons since other phones are smaller, just as powerful, and have more storage.
Click to expand...

Surprisingly? Son... I had a Nexus7 and I'm scheming like mad to get the Nexus4 now.

It's probably also a concession to their business partners. After all LG still has to differentiate the added premium on the Optimus G somehow. I don't envy them the task of convincing people to shell out a few hundred greenbacks for SD slot and LTE but anyway it at least gives them somewhere to go.

Now it's up to Samsung to figure out how they're going to sell a $500 1280 Note 10 when the 2560 $400 Nexus 10 is right next to it.
 
Last edited:
TJ99 said:
Sure, if the costs were low that would make sense. The Nexus tablet was pretty cheap but the phones normally cost about the same as the competition. And is adding a card slot really THAT expensive anyway? Not just referring to this phone in particular, the Samsung Nexus also lacked an SD card slot, and that wasn't cheap.
Click to expand...

But the costs are low... very low! $299 and $350 respectively. Using direct conversion and if you picked one up in the states that means you could get a phone with pretty much the same specs as an SIII for R3000
 
cerebus said:
Why didn't you add a price row in there? It's kind of a major factor. The Nexus4 competes on an extremely aggressive pricing level compared to the others. And it's not just an IPS it's some kind of Super blah blah IPS screen with subtile blah blahs as well. Not a great comparison overall.
Click to expand...

Yeah if in the same price bracket I would pick the S3. But at half the price I would definitely go with the Nexus4.
 
AlmightyBender said:
But the costs are low... very low! $299 and $350 respectively. Using direct conversion and if you picked one up in the states that means you could get a phone with pretty much the same specs as an SIII for R3000
Click to expand...

That wasn't the case with the previous Nexuses, like I said. The other ones cost pretty much the same as the competition but were also light on storage.

It's probably not an issue in the civilised world, where cheap, uncapped mobile data is available and you can stream anything you want.
 
TJ99 said:
8/16GB with no MicroSD slot? That's pretty damn pathetic in this day and age. Why do all the Nexus phones (apart from the first one) suck so much?
Click to expand...

to encourage you to use the cloud. Nexus is meant to showcase Googles products, google docs, google calendar, gmail, maps and google cloud to stream music, videos etc. Pity about the high cost of bandwidth in this country, but that's the thinking behind it.
 
TJ99 said:
8/16GB with no MicroSD slot? That's pretty damn pathetic in this day and age. Why do all the Nexus phones (apart from the first one) suck so much?
Click to expand...

Simple really....
Google wants to promote their cloud services and the play store. and the best way is to limit on device storage...
 
AlmightyBender said:
But the costs are low... very low! $299 and $350 respectively. Using direct conversion and if you picked one up in the states that means you could get a phone with pretty much the same specs as an SIII for R3000
Click to expand...

Well its low... but you should consider that its not really the price youll end up paying.. even if you live in USA.
State tax is between 7-10% and google charges $10 for shipping... so its at least another $35 more.
If youre importing... (which ill be doing)
You have to factor in a cut for Pravin, Oupa and the rest of the gang......
 
Nexus = Google in all its glory. That is where all Nexus products will be going. That is why they are now becoming cheaper. It is Google's answer to Amazon's ecosystem. You get Nexus you get all things Google. Not bad way to go, but we do have this "little" problem of very high data costs in SA.
 
BeVonk! said:
Nexus = Google in all its glory. That is where all Nexus products will be going. That is why they are now becoming cheaper. It is Google's answer to Amazon's ecosystem. You get Nexus you get all things Google. Not bad way to go, but we do have this "little" problem of very high data costs in SA.
Click to expand...

Indeed Nexus is Google's best, it's becoming increasingly the case; the Nexus 10 is an outstanding example of that. No Android tablet is close. The problem is now though, how does a manufacturer compete using Google's software against Google's hardware and pricing, when Google's hardware is the best and the software is the purest available, and updates OTA to the latest and greatest all the time; and they undercut the manufacturers' own margins?
 
cerebus said:
Indeed Nexus is Google's best, it's becoming increasingly the case; the Nexus 10 is an outstanding example of that. No Android tablet is close. The problem is now though, how does a manufacturer compete using Google's software against Google's hardware and pricing, when Google's hardware is the best and the software is the purest available, and updates OTA to the latest and greatest all the time; and they undercut the manufacturers' own margins?
Click to expand...

Its not Google's devices. Its OEM devices made with Google as guide and sold by Google directly to the public (No Middle Man)
Nexus 7 = Asus
Nexus 10 = Samsung
Nexus 4 = LG

On how they can compete?
Include things Google does not, like USB Host sockets, SD card slots, more memory, better battery life (Bigger batteries), 3G/LTE and better delivery to end users.

The problem with normal OEM's is that they normally sell via Service providers like MTN and Vodacom that do not really sell phones/tablets more like use them as an incentive for new and existing customers. They normally do this by making contract options more attractive while giving better "subscription" options to contracts.

TL;DR Google does not want to sell you a mobile contract just a device. SO maybe just maybe OEM's so take note and find better ways to sell to end users?
 
AlphaJohn said:
Its not Google's devices. Its OEM devices made with Google as guide and sold by Google directly to the public (No Middle Man)
Nexus 7 = Asus
Nexus 10 = Samsung
Nexus 4 = LG
Click to expand...
Yeah I get that.

On how they can compete?
Include things Google does not, like USB Host sockets, SD card slots, more memory, better battery life (Bigger batteries), 3G/LTE and better delivery to end users.
Click to expand...
They still need to sit on the same stand with equal (or frequently worse) specifications and a 50% markup. Nexus7 and 10 have no equal in Android tablets, yet nobody profits from it significantly.

TL;DR Google does not want to sell you a mobile contract just a device. SO maybe just maybe OEM's so take note and find better ways to sell to end users?
Click to expand...
Google wants to sell you a device but they aren't interested in making any kind of margin on the device. It's not to do with the bundling, it's a question of where the profit is for anybody here. One can chop and change selling models but the end price is hugely cheaper on the Nexus model, and the hardware is better or equal.
 
cerebus said:
Indeed Nexus is Google's best, it's becoming increasingly the case; the Nexus 10 is an outstanding example of that. No Android tablet is close. The problem is now though, how does a manufacturer compete using Google's software against Google's hardware and pricing, when Google's hardware is the best and the software is the purest available, and updates OTA to the latest and greatest all the time; and they undercut the manufacturers' own margins?
Click to expand...

As AJ says, the OEM's will all get into the Nexus action BUT the OEM's will always be in a position to bring their own offerings out with features Google leave out (probably on purpose not to take everything away from the OEM's). I therefore suspect the Nexus products will always come without some features to give the OEM's some space to still offer their own differentiated products.
 
BeVonk! said:
As AJ says, the OEM's will all get into the Nexus action BUT the OEM's will always be in a position to bring their own offerings out with features Google leave out (probably on purpose not to take everything away from the OEM's). I therefore suspect the Nexus products will always come without some features to give the OEM's some space to still offer their own differentiated products.
Click to expand...

Removable batteries and SD card slots are not features that most customers feel they can't live without - or rather, they aren't worth an extra $2-300 on basically the same phone. Only LTE really stands out as a key missing feature for the Nexus4. Further, the public mostly would prefer the pure Android experience than OEM branded launchers like Touchwiz. Nexus7 was hugely better by dint of not being bogged down by Touchwiz or whatever Asus's version is. I just can't help but feel that this trend is not going to turn out well for the OEMs, who are already squeezed by underperforming Android tabs.
 
Google and Amazon will be selling their device offerings at cost as they both see their income from other things like content and advertising and not hardware (like Apple). They want as many of their hardware device in as many hands as possible. Apple's focus is on making money from hardware (especially). Which model is going to win the day? I tend to lean towards the guy giving me good enough quality hardware cheap and then I pay for content. Others insist on rather owning that premium Apple hardware (from which Apple makes most of their money).
 
BeVonk! said:
Google and Amazon will be selling their device offerings at cost as they both see their income from other things like content and advertising and not hardware (like Apple). They want as many of their hardware device in as many hands as possible.
Click to expand...
Remember I'm not talking about Google's profits, or Amazon's, which in any case are becoming highly suspect given the deep losses they both reported in the last quarter (Amazon lost $273million, Google I can't remember offhand but it also wasn't pretty). But let's give them the benefit of the doubt that eventually content will win out and they'll start raking it in the backdoor. The ones who are getting squeezed are the partners who make those devices and cut their throats on margins to do so - Asus, Samsung, LG.

Which model is going to win the day? I tend to lean towards the guy giving me good enough quality hardware cheap and then I pay for content.
Click to expand...
The minute we start seeing any kind of profits coming through from that model I can agree with you.

Others insist on rather owning that premium Apple hardware (from which Apple makes most of their money).
Click to expand...
It's not purely the hardware though; iOS has an extremely healthy content system, arguably better than Android's in fact. Apple's method is to ensure a highly developed software ecosystem in order to lock consumers into their premium cost hardware. Google's/Amazon's method is to entice customers with cheap hardware so that they can get locked into the shop wares.
 
Speaking of retarded, who the hell wants multi-user support on a PHONE? Apart from there being private stuff on, who shares phones???? Unless you want the thief that steals yours to be able to create his own user account? So their answer to the question of why they do something as dumb as crippling their devices' storage space, is so they can implement an even dumber idea? It makes no sense really.
 
TJ99 said:
Speaking of retarded, who the hell wants multi-user support on a PHONE? Apart from there being private stuff on, who shares phones???? Unless you want the thief that steals yours to be able to create his own user account? So their answer to the question of why they do something as dumb as crippling their devices' storage space, is so they can implement an even dumber idea? It makes no sense really.
Click to expand...

Speak for yourself. I can say without a doubt you not a father?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X