Is the big deal about this you talk to the phone a lot when using apps? Do many people want that? Seems a gimmick to me rather than the next big thing. I used to feel a tit using Siri in public when I had an iPhone, was it just me?

Is the big deal about this you talk to the phone a lot when using apps? Do many people want that?

Apparently it’s taken off in the states but is still not really the done thing here. Googles voice recognition is ahead of the competition though and I do somethings use it when I have my hands full.

Its bad enough people talking to their phone with it on speaker. Is it really that hard to put your phone to your ear so we don’t have to listen to you waffling about Britney’s thrush in public again?

I think this is a real attempt by google to capture the iPhone,Samsung, HTC etc high end phone market.
People will happily pay high prices for the top of range iPhone etc.

Whats their Unique Selling Point ? Same price as established players, where is their advantage ?

Yup because we know them and are repeat customers having had a positive experience. Also Apple phines hold their value well so overall cost of overnership is reasonable

Fuzzy – no idea, I have never used it. I know why the phone companies are keen on it, the more they improve voice recognition which they do by AI learning of Siri usage the more ability they will have to scan our voice calls like they do emails for advertising keywords. IMO its absoluteky not about user convenience

Whats their Unique Selling Point

it’s not iproduct? They have a headphone socket? but I suspect it’s a premium phone designed to work with the Google platform for all the google/gmail/chrome users

I’m not sure NickC understands what unique means.

Same price as established players, where is their advantage ?

It’s a own brand Google phone, so you will be staying up to date with Android when you get the phone. A bit like you can with iOS but it’s Android and not iOS.

Nexus was great. But Nexus was cheap and the build quality reflected the price. This is expensive and it needs to be a build quality to reflect the price, like the iPhone generally is.

People generally purchase a phone on contract and don’t think too much about the overall price of it because it’s lost to them with monthly contract costs.

Whats their Unique Selling Point ?

can someone do a venn diagram of:

doesnt catch on fire
not an iphone.

Not especially when compared to comparable devices.

I just checked a few sold listings on ebay and a used iPhone 6 (released autumn 2014) is going for around 35% of the original price. A used Sam Note 4 (also aut 2014) is also around 35% of the original price.

where is their advantage ?

Unlimited online photo/video backup, immediate update of the next x versions of the OS, tighter integration between hardware and software.

I’ll not be buying one because I’m tight and I don’t need the newest bestest phone. I always buy second hand, so will be looking for a second hand Nexus 5X and hoping that much of the AI newness appears as software.

I’m not sure NickC understands what unique means.

all your unique are belong to us

mikewsmith » On the fingerprint sensor why put it on the front? Pick up a phone and where are your fingers? How do you pick up the phone with your fingers at the front if you want to use it?
some of us have opposable thumbs…

Yeah, fingerprint recognition doesn’t mean you can’t use your thumbs: I almost exclusively use my thumbs when I unlock my phone, it just seems the most natural thing to do.

I almost exclusively use my thumbs when I unlock my phone

Man, you’re really missing out. There’s loads of things that thumbs are good for:

Wikipedia/Thumbs and their uses

I almost exclusively use my thumbs when I unlock my phone, it just seems the most natural thing to do.

I’d assume that is because of where apple put the sensor (because that is where their home button was and they didn’t want to change/move/add one)

If you remove conditioning where would you put it 😉

The selling points?
Well put together integrated OS – I have a seamless connection between my apps, phone, pc and cloud
Not Apple – for many reasons
High performance phone
Clean android is great
uses normal connections – 3.5mm headphone USB C (an actual standard cable) – no need to buy a special cable to connect to a phone for no reason other than to license cables/docking stations

The selling points?
Well put together integrated OS – I have a seamless connection between my apps, phone, pc and cloud
Not Apple – for many reasons
High performance phone
Clean android is great
uses normal connections – 3.5mm headphone USB C (an actual standard cable) – no need to buy a special cable to connect to a phone for no reason other than to license cables/docking stations

As mentioned above, the Oneplus3 has all that covered for something like half the price. The difference seems to be that many people value being able to pick one up in a shop (and take it back if there’s a problem), and of course you can’t pay for a OP3 over 24 months.

I like the smaller one – if it’s dual sim, it might get a look-in when I replace my OPX.

It’s a phone.
They’ve floated at a high price.
They will adjust price based on the strength of sales.
I am sure they have plenty of margin to play with – I doubt they have the problems that RIM had where they couldn’t reduce the price because they were crap at making phones efficiently.

The difference seems to be that many people value being able to pick one up in a shop (and take it back if there’s a problem), and of course you can’t pay for a OP3 over 24 months.

slight aside – op3 is now available from o2 on contract…

Unless they adjust the price radically downwards it’s going to be as successful as the Google Glasses.

Nothing about this makes me want to spend £500 more than I paid to get my most recent phone.

The only conceivable difference is the camera, my phone smashes this to bits in terms of battery life.

The sheep will be lining up to empty their pockets though, so well done Google.

I’ve had a Nexus 5 and now a Nexus 5X. Both have been pretty good. I think the key point with the Nexus branded phones was the value for money. They were priced very competitively for what you got. The Pixel phones seem to have upped that.

I guess you could compare the Nexus range to Skoda and the Pixel range to BMW/Audi (insert other appropriate STW car brand).

Nothing about this makes me want to spend £500 more than I paid to get my most recent phone.

You’re not their target market.

They’re aiming for people who are willing to spend this much on a phone, because they already do to get the latest bestest Samsung/Sony/Apple phone.

Whats their Unique Selling Point

Regular upgrades of the latest Android, which apparently most Android manufacturers don’t supply to owners as they have to re-customise the latest build from Google and can’t be bothered….

apparently most Android manufacturers don’t supply to owners as they have to re-customise the latest build from Google and can’t be bothered….

The current process is:

new version by Google > ported to the handset by the manufacturer > pushed out by the mobile company

Some phone companies are faster than others at modifying for the handset, and some don’t bother. (Some also add a load of junk over the top of Android.)

(Google moved a lot of the functionality of the OS to a higher level ‘app’ that they could control directly a few versions ago, so being on an older version doesn’t stop all the new functionality making its way through.)

With Pixel:

new version by Google > pushed out by Google

With Pixel:

new version by Google > pushed out by Google
same as the Nexus, just got the first update to 7 this morning.

jambalaya – Member
Unless they adjust the price radically downwards it’s going to be as successful as the Google Glasses.

but if you slapped an apple badge on the back it would be must have?
Pricing is on a par with the S7 etc.

Android (Nexus) phones were historically cheaper that iPhones because Google’s bottom line is subsidised by them flogging your personal details to build an advertising profile. Now they want their cake and to eat it too.

Google also do a top line Chrome book that price matches the mac, and yet no-one is forced to buy one, some folk like spending money, some don’t. Don’t understand why it seems to wind up Jamba and others on the thread.

weird, picking your choice of phone is becoming like picking a football team. Choose a side and be a dick about it.

weird, picking your choice of phone is becoming like picking a football team. Choose a side and be a dick about it.

Pick?

Outrageous suggestion, football team should be allocated at birth.

Will never buy a Google phone again. Got their first attempt maybe 8 years ago, was absolutely useless. Got rid of it after 3 months even though it was a 12 month contract.

i thought the G1 with OG android was a great phone, G2 was decent as well,

but if you slapped an apple badge on the back it would be must have?

No it would need iOS and the seemless integration with iCloud, iPad, Apple TV and Macs

i thought the G1 with OG android was a great phone, G2 was decent as well,

Mine was the white one with the keyboard.

Google phones are going to be as successful as Google has been at making inroads into Facebook / social media

No it would need iOS and the seemless integration with iCloud, iPad, Apple TV and Macs

as it stands without the apple badge, it has seemless integration with Drive, any other android device you choose etc…. oh, and iphones it would appear 🙂

so let me get this right, It can be a premium product if it’s made by one giant american corp that has storage, telly, browser, and computers in it’s platform, but if another giant american corp try to do exactly the same thing (googledrive, chromecast, chromebooks and well, any computer ever) it can’t be premium, because…resons?

Google phones are going to be as successful as Google has been at making inroads into Facebook / social media

Google currently have around a 90% share of the phone market, OS-wise. They’re quite successful…

… it can’t be premium, because…resons?

Because Google has no brand cache – it’s not seen as sexy. Just like Microsoft isn’t sexy – very good at what they do, but seen as a utility, a white goods product.

If a Lexus cars were badged as Toyotas (which they are) do you think they’d sell as well or have the same appeal to their target market?

Because Google has no brand cache

As a google user, is there any good reason I can’t have the same perceived quality of product that apple users expect, if that’s what I want?

you seem to be saying, because I haven’t chosen Apple, I can’t have a quality product.

you seem to be saying, because I haven’t chosen Apple, I can’t have a quality product.

Not saying Google can’t produce a quality product at all. And you are free to buy that product.

I’m saying that the vast majority of people won’t desire that product.

There are Apple fanatics but in general phones are still not quite like fashion clothing where the brand cache is everything. People are generally pretty interested in how the product functions, how many pixels, camera performance, processor speed, battery life etc.

Google is a very established service/software brand, it is going to be interesting to see how it develops as a goods brand. What some people have pointed out here is that the Pixel is priced much higher than technically similar products. I suspect in reality the Pixel’s hardware e.g. camera will turn out to technically outperform a lot of the competition but how justified their initial asking price is will depend on how people take to the design of the phone as an overall package.

so let me get this right, It can be a premium product if it’s made by one giant american corp that has storage, telly, browser, and computers in it’s platform, but if another giant american corp try to do exactly the same thing (googledrive, chromecast, chromebooks and well, any computer ever) it can’t be premium, because…resons?

You’ve got it right. Casio can’t just set-up a plant in Switzerland and then knock out automatic watches and hope to sell them for the same price as Rolex.

Brands have value, Apple consistently tops Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brand list.

Reasons why Google isn’t a premium brand.

1. It’s advertising driven, google’s most famous product Google.com is an ad platform. Apple.com isn’t.
2. Google’s core services are free to use – got a gmail account?
3. Google often target their products at the value end of the market, Chromecast £30.

Non of the above shout ‘Premium brand’. That doesn’t mean they don’t make premium or cutting edge tech, it just means they can’t expect the margins Apple do.

It’s not really weather Google can sell an expensive phone, it’s how long Apple can keep selling their phones at the price they do.

Google can absolutely launch a fancy expensive phone. I’m just expressing my view it will be a flop. Bill Gates expressed his view that the iPhone would be a flop. We are all entitled to our opinions.

t’s not really weather Google can sell an expensive phone, it’s how long Apple can keep selling their phones at the price they do.

Absolutely, if / when sales slow down they can cut the price but right now they can sell them as fast as they make them. They have only just started selling in China fwiw.

They have only just started selling in China fwiw.

“offically” on sale since 2009 two years after the first iphone went on sale in the US. I’ll bet most chinese have never heard of apple 🙄