
Google Designing 'X Phone' to Rival Apple, Samsung - Pr0
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324731304578191711598368942-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html
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krschultz
It is shockingly simple to get at least near the level of Apple products:
don't let your vendors ship crapware on the device.

When you play with a Nexus device with vanilla Android and no crap apps
installed by default, it's great. It's very comparable to an iPhone
experience. If Google installed more of their 1st party apps by default, it
would be even better.

Yet most devices shipped by Verizon have 7-10+ apps that are absolute garbage
and distract from the experience.

It's entirely analogous to laptops. Windows isn't terrible. Windows combined
with the 20 apps that Dell shipped by default is terrible.

Don't let the middlemen (Dell/HP for Microsoft, Verizon/AT&T for Google)
define your user experience.

~~~
siglesias
_Don't let the middlemen (Dell/HP for Microsoft, Verizon/AT &T for Google)
define your user experience._

This is not, as you think, simple. There are no margins in commoditized
devices. If they all trend toward being identical and low cost, all partners
will find the most exceedingly clever ways to differentiate from each other or
boost margins. Software is a prime target.

You also speak of "letting" vendors ship crapware. Let? This is an open
platform. Google only has control if vendors desire the Google goodies that
cost a little bit of money. Also, how much leverage do they have exactly
against a carrier like Verizon, which is their primary sales channel? Not as
much as you would think. As this article points out, forking Android
(especially to Samsung) is becoming an increasingly viable alternative to
playing ball with Google, and the consequences would be pretty disastrous if
they were to do that.

This hedge of doing their own hardware represents yet another challenge with
your shockingly simple solution: that supply chain management in this market
is really difficult, especially if you have some killer ideas in mind for new
kinds of hardware (i.e., using materials other than plastic, new experimental
displays, sensors, etc.) How quickly did Nexus 4's sell out? It's very
possible that demand was strong, but the double-glass enclosure probably
proved to be more of a headache than originally conceived to manufacture.

So it's not simple. This market is difficult, fraught with trust issues and
risks in doing it all yourself.

~~~
w1ntermute
> This is not, as you think, simple. There are no margins in commoditized
> devices. If they all trend toward being identical and low cost, all partners
> will find the most exceedingly clever ways to differentiate from each other
> or boost margins. Software is a prime target.

Except a high quality Android phone is _not_ a commodity. It's a premium
product that no one (outside the Nexus line and the OG Droid) has created. If
there's a segment of the market interested in such a product (which is what
everyone believes), then they will be willing to pay a premium for it.

> As this article points out, forking Android (especially to Samsung) is
> becoming an increasingly viable alternative to playing ball with Google, and
> the consequences would be pretty disastrous if they were to do that.

Forking is not an issue because that would remove access to the Play Store,
without which a smartphone simply would not be competitive. Look at the Kindle
Fire - it had the advantage of being a tablet (where Android apps are still
being developed), coming out quite a while back (again, app situation more
favorable than now), having an existing content ecosystem (which Samsung
doesn't), and being their first foray into the hardware/Android market (not
the case for Samsung).

At this point, Samsung really doesn't have any choice but to stick to just
skinning Android if it wants to keep selling phones.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Carriers are the ones that sell directly to consumers though. They're
optimizing for the showroom experience. They want to walk you around their
showroom and have a variety of devices to choose from. If they can convince
you that you have a lot of options, they've won.

They also want to maintain control, and so playing manufacturers off of each
other helps with that.

------
taeric
I still feel the dominant position of the iPhone is an understanding of
marketing as much as anything else. People aren't necessarily buying iPhones
because they are better, but because they want an iPhone. That is a huge
distinction that carries a ton of weight.

I understand the belief that if you make a significantly better option, it
will sell well. I question the validity of this belief. As well as the ability
of anyone to do so.

~~~
rayiner
It's not so much that Apple understands marketing (they use the same ad
agencies as anyone else), but they understand the market.

I think a really good example of this phenomenon is the whole screen size
debate. The tech press just could not understand why Apple was so hesitant to
join in the screen size war and go from 3.5" to 4.0" to 4.3" to 4.7" phones.
The tech press is, of course, almost entirely male. Meanwhile, more than half
of the potential customer base for these phones is female, and
disproportionately young females at that. Females have substantially smaller
hands than males. My wife, who has no exposure to the tech press debate over
screen size, lamented to me that her new iPhone 5 was great except she didn't
like how the screen was bigger and harder for her to use one handed.

Apple gets it. Apple understands that teenager girls are a bigger market than
male geeks and designs its products accordingly. If you think, instead, that
Apple's dominance is the result of Apple being better at targeting
advertisements to teenage girls, then you've completely lost sight of the
ball.

~~~
mitchty
Precisely, Apple understands that the women demographic is more important than
the male. An observation I've noted is that of the women that love iPhones all
love them due to the size and "feel" in their hands. A very visceral and
physical response to a device if you ask me. They may hate the rest of the
phone/company/etc, and hate here is over-exagerrating, but being able to hold
your phone in one hand to use is important to many people.

Having to explain this as a guy with small hands to really big guys is
annoying. But I have noticed that larger people (physically) don't mind the
larger/wider phones. But their hands are actually bigger. I can't use a phone
much wider than the iPhone. Once I get to the point that I have to shift the
phone in my hand I feel like I'm holding a mini tablet.

I know everyone raves about the bigger devices but I can't use them for more
than a few minutes. They're too wide for me, no matter how much I may want to
use android I have to side with the women on this one. 3.5" width is the sweet
spot for the other 50% of the population. As guys the sooner we realize that
our physical characteristics influence what we buy we'll be better off.

For the record my glove size is 7.5, big for womens hands, tiny for guys.

------
michael_miller
I'm really glad this is happening. Hardware companies have long been stingy
and focused on the bottom line. One of the things that annoys me to no end
about most PCs is that they have "Intel Inside" and "Designed for Windows"
stickers. Hardware companies get maybe $20 from putting these stickers on the
computers, and another $20 to put crapware on the computers they ship. $40
profit on a (say) $700 computer. As a consumer, I absolutely despise this. If
I'm spending $700, I don't want to have to use rubbing alcohol to remove
stickers. I don't want to have to spend several hours uninstalling trial
versions of software I didn't want in the first place. I'll pay the $40 out of
pocket, just give me a clean usable computer. It's really a shame that only
one company has realized this.

I'm glad that Google has wised up and is taking a stand against the race to
the bottom that has pervaded the hardware industry. With both major platforms
having high quality hardware, the pressure will be on for the third-party
manufacturers to up their game.

~~~
wvenable
> $40 profit on a (say) $700 computer.

If you're willing to pay $740 instead of $700 then you might get that -- but
most people aren't. It's not that only one company realizes it, it's that one
particular company also charges you a lot more.

~~~
CountSessine
Who's making that $740 PC without crapware right now? I know I can buy a Mac
and have a usable machine out of the box, but who is doing this in the Windows
PC world?

~~~
awa
You can buy any pc from store.microsoft.com or the physical microsoft store
and that would come with no crap/bloatware

~~~
beagle3
Story time:

Two years ago, I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad with the intention of running Linux.
I bought it from the Microsoft Store website, because it was $200 cheaper than
buying it from Lenovo (even with discount codes from dealnews.com)

So, as I was checking out, the store asks me if I would like to pay $80 more
for "Microsoft Signature" setup. Given that I was going to run Linux, I was
already upset at the implicit Windows tax, and declined without even checking
what "Microsoft Signature" was. Especially since the whole thing was $650, so
$80 is almost a 15% increase.

Three days later, I get the thing, and the box says "with Microsoft
Signature". I first looked to see that they did not charge me for it. And
then, just before calling to shout at them for installing crapware I didn't
ask for, I checked what "Microsoft Signature" really means. Lo and behold, it
means "Lack of manufacturer crapware".

Microsoft was offering to charge me $80 more so that I would only get
Microsoft software out of the box.

(The Intel Inside and Win7 stickers were still there, however)

------
tluyben2
Let them first fix their supply chain; buy a ton of factories or whatever,
because here (in the EU) Nexus 4 and 10 are still sold out (before xmas; how
smart...). Many people I know now went for the SIII or iPad 10 inch instead of
waiting any longer. That's incredibly lame.

Edit: in my country (Netherlands) they haven't even started selling the Nexus
10 in the first place, but I usually order that kind of stuff in Spain because
they are apparently 'important enough' for second (behind the US) launches
most of the time.

------
arrrg
Hopefully. Android may be good enough for the vast majority of people, for
myself it's just rage inducing.

You know, I was sort of jaded from Apple's stupid antics. When my dad asked me
what phone his employer should buy for him I told him to get the Samsung
Galaxy SII. It got great reviews and was widely praised, it also runs a
somewhat recent version of Android. Now I'm visiting my parents for Christmas
and helping my dad configure it.

Holy shit, what an unbelievable piece of crap! There aren't enough expletives
to describe that train wreck. Running Android 4.0.4, no less. Wow. It's just
awful, no better than those crappy feature phones from five years ago, making
all the same idiotic mistakes. How anyone can deal with this crap is a mystery
to me. (I now just feel bad for my dad who has to deal with it.)

Apple, I may hate your antics, but you do blow Samsung out of the water.
Google still has to step it up. I thought they were on a level. They still are
not. All they have going for them is price and diversity. (Not that anyone but
me care. But holy shit, what a piece of crap. I'm really wondering what all
the gushing reviewers were smoking. Also, what the hell is wrong with that
awful display? Why is white so green?)

~~~
drivebyacct2
Good thing you have all those specifics in there. Or any. Or even a hint at
what is such a "train wreck". My litmus test is when my got-super-rich-off-
Apple-stock friend is saying that he's trying out 4.2 and is envious of it.
And that's just from casual exposure to someone who has owned every iOS device
made.

~~~
psykotic
I bought a Nexus 7 as my first Android device a few weeks ago, primarily for
reading. Overall, I've been pretty happy with it as a long-time iPhone and
iPad user. I'll say this: It's surprising how bad Android's momentum-free
scrolling feels. Apple patents strike again!

~~~
harshaw
is that really true? We implemented momentum scrolling on the Sony-Erricson
p800 ages ago. go figure...

~~~
drivebyacct2
I don't know, this is the second time I've heard this complaint in two days. I
have inertial momentum scrolling in Android. It's been here forever and it
works quite well... I think this is "it feels different than iOS so it sucks"
mentality.

------
edyang
As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, I just have three words for Google:
more battery life. Seriously, I love the phone but it sucks down the juice
like there's no tomorrow. And that's with an extended capacity battery pack
and App Killer set on Aggressive.

~~~
joonix
The battery life on the Note2 is phenomenal. Helps that it has a 3100mah
battery.

------
SODaniel
Of course, they would be rivaling Apple/Samsung if they would just produce
enough of the Nexus 4 and market it better. But that just seems TOO EASY I
guess.

~~~
CountSessine
_if they would just produce enough_

But that's why this is so hard. Google and LG completely fucked up the Nexus
4. They so completely misjudged market demand for the N4 that they didn't have
their supply chain in line to produce enough. That's why even now you can't
get one. It takes a while to get all of the downstream suppliers in line and
they're probably scrambling to do that now.

That's why this business is so hard. It's not that they _just_ didn't produce
enough - they didn't produce enough and they're not very good with contingency
planning and supply chain management and so the Nexus 4 isn't an option for
most consumers who would want one. Don't underestimate just how good Apple and
Samsung are at this.

------
Apocryphon
What does this mean for the future of the Nexus brand?

~~~
eliben
Did anyone say it could not be "Nexus X" ?

------
mtgx
I for one hope they also let manufacturers create many more "Nexus" devices,
if they are going to pursue this with Motorola anyway. They need to create a
Nexus program with _much stricter_ guidelines than the typical Android phone
(no skins, no extra crapware, lag-free, and which gets at least two dot-oh
upgrades - like 5.0 and 6.0), and also allow them to make $100 (unlocked)
Nexus devices, too.

I wouldn't buy the cheap one for myself, but I could recommend them to people
who just want a cheap smartphone. I'd much rather recommend them a clean Nexus
device, than a skinned custom-software one, with an unpredictable user
experience, that also doesn't get upgrades.

All of these Nexus devices also need to have all of their upgrades handled by
Google alone - just like the Chromebooks. In fact, this Nexus program should
be handled almost like the Chromebook program. Nobody gets to touch the Chrome
OS but Google.

I think these devices would become increasingly more popular thanks to the
word of mouth of the people who actually know what they are and recommending
them to all their friends. This would clean up the Android ecosystem a bit by
having exactly one user experience across Android devices, and having a major
portion of the Android ecosystem be upgraded on time and for a longer period.

As for this X-devices strategy from Motorola, they could use it as "iPhone-
killers" - as hero devices of their ecosystem, like Nexus has been until now.
But they need to be devices of highest quality, and they shouldn't try to also
compromise on price, like they did with Nexus 4. I'm not saying that Nexus 4
suffered from it, but to be honest that strategy started to worry me a little
because Google might want to get to lower and lower price points in the
future, and forget about making the very best devices in the market. And I
think that would be a very bad idea. Google needs to excite "influencers" in
the tech world, and they can't do that with sub-par cheaper devices.

But with the X strategy, they can deliver these hero "best in the market"
devices, while the Nexus program would allow for a sub-group of the Android
market, to have devices from $100-$600, from different manufacturers, but
under very strict guidelines, and with Google handling all the upgrades.
Basically the Nexus program should become what Android should've been if
Google could restart Android today.

tl;dr - Nexus = Windows/ChromeOS strategy, with one UX and all upgrades from
Google for at least 2 years. X-phone - iPhone strategy; Google's hero device
for the year, the one that's made to excite the tech-insiders, and push the
ecosystem further, and the one that always comes with the dot-oh versions, not
dot-one (e.g. 5.0, not 5.1).

~~~
aboodman
Why would any vendor agree to such an arrangement? If you're not allowed to
differentiate on either hardware or software except in trivial ways, the
product commoditizes immediately and there's no profit for the vendor.

The reason Apple can do this is that they make their own hardware, so there's
nobody else who needs to get paid and no reason to try and "differentiate".
The downside of the Apple strategy is that hardware businesses are extremely
difficult and expensive.

~~~
mtgx
For the same reason they entered the Nexus program - for the popularity in the
Android community. And I guess Google could and _should_ help them with
marketing, the way Microsoft is promoting Windows 8. Google has never really
promoted Android as a brand, and I think that was a _huge_ mistake, not only
because it means that in the mind of a regular consumer Android doesn't mean
much, but also because it makes it that much easier for other manufacturers to
step all over Android's regular interface - because the consumer doesn't know
it anyway.

I'd argue that some manufacturers would be happy to make such devices if
Google spent many millions in promoting them.

------
drivebyacct2
I was just sitting here thinking that I wouldn't upgrade my Galaxy Nexus with
4.2.1 until it breaks given how it literally handles everything I need it for,
but if Motorola put out an unlocked AOSP device, I'd be all over it.

Though, I also remember how much I enjoy VZW coverage and how unlikely it is
that Google is going to play ball with them anymore.

-

>For the X phone, an initiative being led by former Google product manager
Lior Ron who specialized in mapping, Motorola wanted top-notch features for
the phone's camera and photo software, such as better color saturation and the
ability to take panoramic shots, two people familiar with the situation said.
But some of the features were found to drain battery life or already have been
incorporated into popular new devices, such as the iPhone 5 that launched
earlier this year, they added.

....... uhm, what? Android beat iOS to panoramas and Photosphere was part of
4.2. I can't understand how "color saturation" drains the battery constantly.
(Frankly the 4.2 stock camera kicks ass, especially combined with the new lock
screen widgets. Very slick. One gesture, one tap to take a picture from a
locked phone.)

I also don't understand the implication that this is Google hedging bets in
case Samsung gets disappointed. Samsung is beginning to eat Apple's lunch in
Android sales... why would they turn their back on Android?

~~~
barista
Unless Samsung is thinking of turning its back on android for any reason.

~~~
eliben
They're involved in efforts like <https://www.tizen.org/about>, but I don't
really see this one lifting.

------
pretoriusB
> _It is shockingly simple to get at least near the level of Apple products:
> don't let your vendors ship crapware on the device._

Well, you also need to get the actual hardware on par. Cheap plastic won't do.
Get the machining and the materials right.

Oh, and let the users UPGRADE between versions of Android. What the duck is up
with that?

~~~
drivebyacct2
> Cheap plastic won't do.

I have never doubted that my Android phones are tougher than iPhones. I drop
my Galaxy Nexus constantly on concrete without issue. Every single one of my
family members has broken an iPhone screen in the last year, year and a half.

~~~
pretoriusB
It's the feel, not the toughness when people constantly drop them.

That said, the glass back panel on iPhone 4 was easy to break. The solid metal
iPhone 5 not so much.

------
barista
Working with your hardware partners to develop more choices for customers
while also providing a premium experience that you have full control on...
Interesting that Google is copying Microsoft's strategy that people feared
might backfire for Microsoft.

------
loceng
This could easily start to kill Apple - or at least start taking big bites out
of them.

~~~
cmelbye
Easily start to kill Apple? That's a pretty strong claim.

