Google/Motorola Developing Flagship Phone to Compete with Apple and Samsung

[RedCroissant]

Correct me if 'm wrong...

Wasn't the Google Nexus a great phone when it came out? I only remember hearing good things about it and the fact that it was the only device to run pure Android. I thought that made it even better. Maybe I'm confused.

I personally think this is a great move on their part because they now have a major phone manufacturer that can manufacture numerous lines of phones that are running the latest OS version and that would also make Google's plans to take more control of the OS more feasible.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google started marketing the new phone that way, and maybe even leading to the decrease in fragmentation.

I could be completely confused though considering I have only used a couple of Android devices recently(that were so cheaply made), and due to me being an iPhone owner and user of multiple iOS devices.

 

[rmwebs]

Wasn't the Google Nexus a great phone when it came out? I only remember hearing good things about it and the fact that it was the only device to run pure Android. I thought that made it even better. Maybe I'm confused.

I personally think this is a great move on their part because they now have a major phone manufacturer that can manufacture numerous lines of phones that are running the latest OS version and that would also make Google's plans to take more control of the OS more feasible.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google started marketing the new phone that way, and maybe even leading to the decrease in fragmentation.

I could be completely confused though considering I have only used a couple of Android devices recently(that were so cheaply made), and due to me being an iPhone owner and user of multiple iOS devices.

I agree - it's a great move.

Google has recognised that there are simply too many handset manufacturers nocking together crap hardware, putting Android on it and selling it. This causes people to get the false impression that Android is a poor os, when its really down to it just being put on poor hardware.

With their own line of phones, they can hopefully take some control of the actual way that Android is put into use on handsets, and may even be able to get those cheap handset makers to up their game.

 

[adder7712]

You and I both know that MOST that come here don't have both products. It's people who like iOS and come here to talk about it and there are people who only come here to troll.
I don't get the point of going to a forum of a product you dislike and talking **** about it!!
If I don't like a product I'm not gonna waste my time going to an android forum just to diss it and praise iOS!!

When I came here, this site is more Mac-centric. And I have a Mac.

What I can observe is that the individuals you label "Android fanboys" are possibly as less ignorant and are educated about the working of both iOS and Android. If you think I drop by here only to bash iOS, read my signature.

The only Android forum I'm active in is XDA Developers and we don't go around bashing iOS there.

 

[parapup]

Lot of people are predicting the imminent demise of Android as we know exists today based on a wrong assumption that Samsung will fork Android and cut out Google. Well Samsung has no platform expertise, they have not done anything close to what Amazon is doing with its Kindroid platform - attracting developers to their own store, selling a ton ok Kindles not because they are awesome hardware or software but because of Amazon's extremely rich content and goods ecosystem.

Samsung has none of that. And people will not let it go down easily if they don't get first rate Google integration on Samsung phones. That's one advantage too big to let go of.

Besides, the Nexus program already exists and hasn't done anything to eat Samsung's sales. Samsung has enough hardware expertise (and now a days software differentiation too - TouchWiz on Note 2 is nice an quite unique in terms of feature offerings) to continue differentiating themselves from the rest.

The Nexus 4 is the iPhone competition - doing another Nexus X with another vendor - Motorola - doesn't have to be something special than what it is today. But the biggest point is that Google makes OK phones and there is a small crowd that prefers stock Android - but rest of the world seems to be liking what Samsung is offering in GS3 and Note and there is no reason they could not beat Google and Motorola at their game while still staying a OHA member.

 

[RedCroissant]

I agree - it's a great move.

Google has recognised that there are simply too many handset manufacturers nocking together crap hardware, putting Android on it and selling it. This causes people to get the false impression that Android is a poor os, when its really down to it just being put on poor hardware.

With their own line of phones, they can hopefully take some control of the actual way that Android is put into use on handsets, and may even be able to get those cheap handset makers to up their game.

After all, controlling the hardware and software is what makes a great device. That has been Apple's selling point to me and why I keep buying their products. It's not the only reason, but I certainly prefer using products from companies that are able to maximize their resources to create a phone/tablet/computer that can last. I still use an iBook G4 on a daily basis. <------ = True.

Plus Motorola's RAZR line has arguably one of the best continuous lines of phones from its inception and now with the ability to avoid putting an aberration of Android OS on that very consistent device, I think people are going to be surprised.

People might even want to make the iPhone mate with the G/M LAZR(or whatever) and make even more powerful and awesome phones. YYYYEESSSS! BREEEED! HA HA HA HA HA! Ok, I'm done now.

 

[faizanshakyboy]

Great News

I can't wait to see how amazing is that new Motorola.

 

[jtrenda33]

Lion "Roar"

If you switch the last letter of that dude's first and last name, you get Lion Ror, or Lion "Roar".

 

[johncrab]

There will soon be three players with three products. The so-called "choice" in the market will narrow even more. The three companies will need each other in the market to keep the knives of the anti trust regulators at bay.

This will eliminate a lot of the Android balkanization as the number of devices dwindles but it will put more pressure on Samsung and Google to support their products the way Apple does with updates and fixes rather than saying, "Buy the new model".

Gonna be interesting.

----------

I also can't wait for Samsung to screw over Google.

 

[KnightWRX]

[ED: I was wrong and thus I'm moving goalposts.]

Nice of you to admit it.

 

[ihuman:D]

So how does Samsung feel now. Google has used them, and is about to put them out to pasture. Sucks doesn't it when you don't own your own operating system

They own Bada.

 

[samcraig]

If true, this could be interesting...

Google reportedly poaches key Samsung marketing VP for Motorola
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/21/google-reportedly-poaches-key-samsung-marketing-vp-from-motorola/

 

[unagimiyagi]

Apple and Google will have similar economies of scale (if you can grant me this point).

That means, spec for spec, a Google X superphone and an iPhone should cost the same to make.

Unless Google is willing to lose money on the hardware, a Google superphone will cost as much as an iPhone does, or significantly more than the really cheap price that Google charges now.

I do think that Google would do well to throw price out the window if they truly want to compete. The iPhone is a premium phone, and Google's Nexus products all have compromises (see: the cheap price). Currently that compromise is price and storage space (16gb max does not appeal to a large, large portion of iphone users). IF they made a 64gb model (HTC realizes that mistake and now has a One X with 64gb as well), and added LTE, and priced it $150 more, people would still buy the nexus flagship.

To build a superphone, Google must shed the label that Android is for cheapskates, poor people who just can't afford an iphone, geeks, and pirates. They need to build a phone that has no compromises first, and then priced competitively second. Android is completely guided by bang for the buck right now, and with that as your starting point, you're not going to compete with Apple.

If Google builds this nice superphone and uses common sense when building it (i.e., no pentile matrix stuff, no 16gb max storage) then they will compete with the iphone. They may have the best strategy, which microsoft is already trying: get the os on as many devices as possible, and then make a superior device the "way it should be". That way for the picky folks you can get a nice phone, and avoid the serious problems of Android 3rd party skins and untimely updates, and keep Android as a dominant OS. Contrary to Apple's belief, market share does matter, and Apple does care about profits as much as making a nice phone b/c they price their iphones at a much higher price than the competition.

Bottom line, if Google has a phone in its portfolio that truly competes with the iPHone, they will be in great shape. They currently do not. No Android device competes toe-to-toe with the iphone 5 currently.

 

[baryon]

Which Nexus are you referring to ? The Nexus One by HTC ? The Nexus S or Galaxy Nexus by Samsung ? The Nexus 4 by LG ? Because none of those was a huge failure, so I don't really understand what you're implying.

Are you talking about Google's initiative for a webstore to buy the HTC Nexus One directly from them unsubsidized ? That was only one way to get the phone, carriers also sold it subsidized and HTC even made a non-Nexus branded model with the same hardware, the HTC Desire. The phone itself was quite the success, Google's webstore though only managed to push around 300k units unsubsidized and they stopped for a while.

Now they are back selling phones and other hardware through Google Play.

Of course, it helps to have actually followed this stuff when commenting, otherwise, you kind of look like a Google basher/hater.

I'm referring to the one that Google first described as "their vision of the phone" and the "best hardware they can imagine for Android". That's exactly what this article is describing, and it sounds as if it was never done before, even though they've already done this 2 years ago, which is why I'm saying that Google already did this once. If it would have lived up to their expectations, surely they wouldn't be doing it again differently.

I'm not bashing Google, I just find that despite all the money they have, most of their ideas kind of end up nowhere and they keep trying random things just because they can, not because it's a good idea. Wave, Buzz, Google Plus, Chromebook, these are all things that were meant to be "huge" and yet most people haven't even heard of them or they failed. It just doesn't seem like they know what they want to do.

I think that what Google is great at is Search, YouTube, Gmail and Maps, and the self driving car, and they should continue in that direction, instead of getting into random projects that someone has already done ("let's make a copy of Facebook but give it a different name, surely people will prefer that!", etc…).

And then they say they want to compete with Samsung. Samsung is running their OS, Google is responsible for everything that Samsung is doing with Android. And instead of controlling that, they want to "compete" with it. First Android is touted to be open-source and then they realise they need more control over it, so which one do they choose?

I think Google has fantastic potential and doesn't put it to good use. It's like a rich kid who wastes their money on stupid things while someone with less money will think twice before buying something. When was the last time they created something new that changed something in the world?

 

[KnightWRX]

I'm referring to the one that Google first described as "their vision of the phone" and the "best hardware they can imagine for Android". That's exactly what this article is describing, and it sounds as if it was never done before, even though they've already done this 2 years ago, which is why I'm saying that Google already did this once. If it would have lived up to their expectations, surely they wouldn't be doing it again differently.

That's the Nexus One. But I don't get that last part, isn't that what everyone does in the industry ? Even if the original iPhone lived up to their expectations, Apple did it again in 2008, differently. Same every year since then really...

That's called progress...

The point is, no Nexus phone ever was a huge failure. You're misremembering the facts behind the "Nexus One failure", which was only Google's phone store initiative that failed. They have since made it different through Google Play and are back doing it. The Nexus One was great in and of itself, but surely you can't expect any hardware to live forever in this day and age, so really, there is nothing wrong with "doing it again, differently", as you put it.

 

[irDigital0l]

Pretty sure Sir Jonathan Paul "Jony" Ive will deliver a whole new modern and consistent look for iOS in the next couple of years if not sooner.

With Forstall gone, I hope we don't have those "FaceBook integration" type tentpole features.

Basically, iOS 7 needs to have a lot more than iOS 6.

 

[stepshows]

What's in a Name?

It will be called the gPhone.
It will have gMail.
It will have Google docs.
and that, ladies and gentlemen, will conclude the gHype.

 

[xofruitcake]

Samsung can fork Android into their own customized OS as easily as Amazon has done for the Kindle Fire.

And that is what Google is worried about concerning Samsung. Amazon highlights their own services on the Kindle Fire, not Google's. As Google's primary revenue comes from their services, if one of the most well-reviewed Android handset vendors moves to their own version that doesn't promote Google's services, that's a not insignificant amount of revenue they are at risk of losing.

If Samsung we're to fork Andriod, it is a much bigger problem than anyone discussed so far. Google make money on the search on Andriod devices. They also collect users info on Andriod devices to refine their search and increase their ads revenue. Amzn sold the search on Fire HD to Bing and all of a sudden Google lose a bunch of search platform that generate revenue for them. The real risk is that Samsung could upgrade all the smart phones that they sold to the new forked OS and Google can loss hundred of millions of mobile devices overnight. But the task to fork Anddroid is enormous. Google play store is not part of Andriod license. Amzn has it's own App Store and so will Samsung if they want to pursue the forking route. Then you have the Google voice, Google drive etc that Samsung need to replace. and supporting an OS is very expensive. Samsung sell about 400m mobile devices based on last Q info. If the search platform is worth $10 a year, the ability to auction the default search engine could net Samsung $4B a year. It is very big money at stake and Amzn already open the door for the other Andriod makers. I am sure all the MBA in different companies are trying to figure this one out. The only way for Google to control the situation is to have their own strong Android brand, hence the Motorola high end device. Goolge can win the OS battle and hand the spoils to Samsung instead..

 

[biggest father1]

Anyone else getting bored of a world that resolves around smartphones?

Thank God! I thought I was the only one out there!

 

[thekev]

What I find most amusing about the Nexus 4 is the irony of it because it's got all the things that made the iPhone 4S "outdated and unacceptable" in 2011

Glass back
No LTE
No expandable memory
No changeable battery
Worse battery life than it's predecessor

Isn't the appeal the off contract pricing combined with its feature set? A used out of warranty 4s isn't necessarily the same thing. If we were comparing the 4s and Nexus new at the same price today, I'd take the 4s. I'm typically within 20 minutes of an Apple Store, so if anything goes wrong, service is easily obtainable. I'm not heavy on data use. Google maps is usually the most data heavy item I'd use.

Well if you don't need it now, you sure as hell didn't need it in 2011 when fandroids were frothing about the lack of LTE in the 4S.

I wouldn't limit it to derogatory groups. Also keep in mind that not everyone was aware of when such things would become more commonplace. Say you live in a major city and the phone is a new 2 year contract. It's reasonable to examine what is supported. A lot of people pass phones down to their kids, so longevity would be a factor there.

 

[xofruitcake]

Apple and Google will have similar economies of scale (if you can grant me this point).

That means, spec for spec, a Google X superphone and an iPhone should cost the same to make.

Unless Google is willing to lose money on the hardware, a Google superphone will cost as much as an iPhone does, or significantly more than the really cheap price that Google charges now.

I do think that Google would do well to throw price out the window if they truly want to compete. The iPhone is a premium phone, and Google's Nexus products all have compromises (see: the cheap price). Currently that compromise is price and storage space (16gb max does not appeal to a large, large portion of iphone users). IF they made a 64gb model (HTC realizes that mistake and now has a One X with 64gb as well), and added LTE, and priced it $150 more, people would still buy the nexus flagship.

To build a superphone, Google must shed the label that Android is for cheapskates, poor people who just can't afford an iphone, geeks, and pirates. They need to build a phone that has no compromises first, and then priced competitively second. Android is completely guided by bang for the buck right now, and with that as your starting point, you're not going to compete with Apple.

If Google builds this nice superphone and uses common sense when building it (i.e., no pentile matrix stuff, no 16gb max storage) then they will compete with the iphone. They may have the best strategy, which microsoft is already trying: get the os on as many devices as possible, and then make a superior device the "way it should be". That way for the picky folks you can get a nice phone, and avoid the serious problems of Android 3rd party skins and untimely updates, and keep Android as a dominant OS. Contrary to Apple's belief, market share does matter, and Apple does care about profits as much as making a nice phone b/c they price their iphones at a much higher price than the competition.

Bottom line, if Google has a phone in its portfolio that truly competes with the iPHone, they will be in great shape. They currently do not. No Android device competes toe-to-toe with the iphone 5 currently.

No, Google/Motorola don't have the economic of scale of Samsung or Apple. Samsung sell about 400M or so mobile device a year and Apple sell 200m or so a year. how many will Motorola sell to make it competitive on the economic scale comparing to Samsung or Apple?


But Motorola don't have to make money just like Google is losing money on Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10.

 

[SockRolid]

... and Google is reportedly concerned that Samsung could "fork" Android and preventing Google's applications from being installed by default. This could have a large impact on Google's mobile reach if it doesn't develop its own handset. ...

Bingo. The impending Samsung fork is the only reason for Google to build their own Motorola smartphone.
Because without their own phone, the vanilla Android release would be completely ignored.

And how would Samsung benefit from their own closed, proprietary Android fork?
Let me count the ways:

1. Samsung could optimize their Android fork for their specific hardware.
No need to deal with the generic lowest-common-denominator source code.

2. Samsung could freeze Android's OS features, giving them stable and consistent
APIs on which to build their custom UI. No deprecated APIs unless they want to
deprecate them. No need to re-code as Google releases new APIs.

3. Samsung could consolidate their domination of the Android market. The above
advantages would help to insure that their fork of Android becomes the de-facto
standard for all Android developers. They've already crushed all other Android
hardware makers. A proprietary fork would help them continue to crush them.

4. Samsung could build their own app and content stores, cutting Google Play out of their
ecosystem entirely. They would get all revenue from all content sold on their smartphones.
Google would get zero.

5. Samsung could integrate TV apps into their proprietary app store, in a way that Google
never could with their two failed versions of Google TV. Samsung already has "connected TVs"
that run apps. And they're probably terrified of Apple's eventual disruption of the TV industry.

In summary, Samsung can and will fork Android because it will give them advantages over all other Android hardware vendors. Including Google's own Motorola branch. This forces Google to ship their own phone (a la Nexus) just so someone, anyone, will continue to use the latest Android release.

 

[irDigital0l]

Apple changed the world with its innovation. No matter what you say.

But now its lacking innovation...

----------

I can't wait for the day that Samsung back stabs Google they way Google back stabbed Apple.

LOL, I really want to see this happen.

Get Samsung to create its own OS.

That would certainly be interesting.

 

[Oletros]

1. Samsung could optimize their Android fork for their specific hardware.
No need to deal with the generic lowest-common-denominator source code.

Can you explain why they can't do that right now?

 

[rendevouspoo]

The current Nexus 4 is a joke compared to the iPhone 5. There isn't really a competitor to the iPhone 5 out there right now yet.

You serious? SG3 is very much a competitor, and in most aspects a better phone. Sales may no be as good because of the genius markerting tactics of Apple. They can make people buy anything.

 

[T-R-S]

Google saying something doesn't make it so

http://www.iclarified.com/26364/apple-captures-53-of-the-us-smartphone-market-its-largest-share-ever