
Motorola's Moto G bites into UK budget smartphone market - yitchelle
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/01/moto-g-boosts-motorola-mobile-smartphone-sales
======
Daishiman
I've just bought this phone. Really does live up to its expectations. Yes, it
could be thinner, it could have a better camera, it could have expandable
memory, but it _works_ , daily use is extremely pleasant, and I don't really
feel like I'm missing out on any essential part of the experience. Basically
it kills any sensation of needing to get an upgrade out of necessity.

~~~
yitchelle
This phone could be the new Nokia 3310. Boy, do I miss that phone. It would
last forever on the single charge, and it handles the basic function of a
phone (talking to someone) really well.

~~~
JTon
Wow now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves :) Let's talk again when I can toss
a new device on the ground without worrying in the slightest!

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aniketpant
I can provide some insight from the Indian market over here. I had been on the
lookout for the launch of Moto G since Motorola announced it last year. Last
month, I purchased the 16 GB model for INR 13,999 (USD 233 at the moment). The
price is very convenient for anyone and there aren't any phones which match
the hardware specifications of this one.

For those who are used to Motorola's customizations in their phone, you will
be missing them because the phone is stock android. The update for KitKat is
already out and many people I know have already updated their phones. Till now
I have not noticed any issues with the phone and it works very well. I am sure
Android developers can make good use of the phone.

~~~
privong
> For those who are used to Motorola's customizations in their phone, you will
> be missing them because the phone is stock android.

That's a selling point for me, at least from my experience using Samsung
phones. Some of the add-ons are nice, but the balance seems to result in a
fairly sluggish phone.

~~~
jonathansizz
I think that comment is referring to Motorola's excellent additions that you
can find on the Moto X, like Active Display, Touchless Control and Moto
Assist.

These really are genuine enhancements rather than bloatware, and they're
engineered to use minimal power (using the Xs low-power co-processors and LED
screen).

However, for the asking price the G is a great device.

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DCKing
This phone has been a brilliant move. Having handled the phone, I can say I
truely wouldn't miss anything at all if I were to rely on it (already owned a
Nexus 4 though). It's not as future proof because it lacks NFC and 4G, but
given that European 3G is usually pretty good and NFC really doesn't seem to
be taking off those things don't matter that much.

The only thing I'm left wondering is why other Android manufacturers have not
released a similar package. This phone obliterates its competition in its
price range; only some of Nokia's Windows Phones provide decent alternatives.

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bananas
I'll probably be hung for this comment, but I'd still grab the Lumia 625 for
the same price myself.

Sure the screen isn't as high res but you get 4G/LTE, an SD slot, guaranteed
lifecycle, _quality_ integration with just about every online service and
completely 100% offline (unlike google) and free for life turn by turn
navigation for vehicles, public transport, on foot and inside buildings.

Also if you've ever broken a Lumia, you'll know the bits are cheap to get and
easy to replace without such things as heat guns and odd tools. A T4/T5/T6
torx set and you're sorted.

Smashed my 820 AMOLED screen a week ago and had bits in next day and it
installed in 10 minutes.

Before anyone goes "apps apps apps", I only have two additional apps installed
other than what shipped with it: an RPN calculator and Adobe Reader

Edit: pricing links as HN has decided I'm posting too fast:

[https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/moto/g/](https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/moto/g/)

[https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/nokia/lumia-625/](https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/nokia/lumia-625/)

Lumia pricing goes really low. You can get SIM-free 820's for £169 and 520's
for £69 if you keep an eye peeled on amazon.

~~~
teekert
I just bought the moto G, coming from a Lumia 800. Reasons: (besides
battery/no win8 etc) Whatsapp is crap, no official telegram app (the
unofficial ones are workable), no Bittorrent Sync, no VNC app, the integrated
Bing search always makes me go back to Google (and I have tried), my Imap
email stopped functioning just like that, no mass storage, instead: Zune. No
good standard podcast player (needs Zune). Etc.

That said, Windows Phone is butter smooth and very nice, very well executed
but it really is the apps for me.

~~~
bananas
The Lumia 800 was a WP7.5 device. It's a bit different now with WP8. Battery
doesn't suck anymore with the NT kernel, we do have mass storage and it
doesn't require Zune anymore. It's a simple MTP device. I can actually plug it
into a CentOS 6.5 machine and copy files on and off it quite happily including
music/videos.

IMAP is very reliable (better than my wife's iPhone), Google search is
integrated into the browser.

I can't say I've tried telegram/whatsapp/bittorrent sync or VNC though.

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m52go
I have this phone and I love it. It flies. It makes phones 3x the price look
ridiculous.

It's also super tough. On YouTube, one guy ran over it with a car and
submerged it in water and it recovered.

I'm intrigued by the specs of the 'flagship' phones but none of them make any
sense next to the G, power-user or not. Unless you game...I have no idea how
games run on this thing because I never play.

~~~
Pxtl
That doesn't match my own experiences - my wife cracked the screen on hers
already.

~~~
m52go
Yeah I'm not sure I would try it...but others have.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzI-
Cd3SYVE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzI-Cd3SYVE)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3U-mlGa7M8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3U-mlGa7M8)

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mod_alec
We have now mostly definitely hit in "Laggards" part in the technological
adoption curve.

\---

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Diffusion...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Diffusion_of_ideas.svg)

~~~
johnchristopher
What do the blue and yellow line stand for ? edit: found the wikipedia page

> The diffusion of innovations according to Rogers. With successive groups of
> consumers adopting the new technology (shown in blue), its market share
> (yellow) will eventually reach the saturation level. In mathematics the S
> curve is known as the logistic function.

That graph seems to blur and merge the distinction between market share and
saturation level.

~~~
Synaesthesia
Looks like the yellow line is cumulative adoption and the blue one is adoption
rate.

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rwmj
My wife has this phone and it's a great phone (even if it wasn't a budget
phone). Really the only thing wrong with it is the camera is slightly sub-par,
although for people who use software like Instagram you wouldn't notice. It's
no surprise at all that this is killing other phones.

My question: Is Googorola losing money on this phone?

~~~
jusben1369
That's certainly implied in the article. And would be a decent strategy as
Motorola just needed to become relevant again and it's corporate master can
justify subsidizing some handsets if it helps in the OS war against Apple.
With Lenovo taking over though that will all be up for review.

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w1ntermute
This would be happening in the US as well if more people weren't on contracts,
and if we had better HSPA+.

~~~
aylons
Few people in the US seem to understand how broken and consumer-adverse their
dependence on carriers and their subsides are.

~~~
therockhead
It does not help that most US tech sites give the carry subsided prices
instead of the true retail cost. For example a review of the iPhone will have
a price of $200 instead of $700.

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hershel
Business wise, one interesting thing about the G is that it's launched online-
only only(or online mostly) ,without big investment in marketing(since the
product is so good it markets itself).Those savings are a big part why it's so
cheap.

Usually ,in electronics products are priced around 3.5x of their components
costs, with most of the cost difference going towards marketing and offline
retailers(who than dictate online price). This is usually done in order to get
a large volume of orders.

Hopefully the model will shift to online only, offering consumers much lower
prices and better products,and a much easier entry point for makers - since
getting access to retailers is really hard.

~~~
w1ntermute
There must've been a tipping point with regards to consumer savviness and free
internet-based promotion by 3rd parties (bloggers, forum commenters) purely on
the merits of the device (including its price) that allowed Motorola to decide
to release a phone online like this and let it speak for itself.

~~~
hershel
You're probably right, and maybe smartphones are unique in that case.

I wonder what will happen if amazon would decide to strongly promote online-
only (or even amazon only) products, offered at a lower price ?

------
teekert
The only thing stopping me from buying it now are rumors of an imminent
release of a 4G model. ([http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-
phones/moto-g/21879/mot...](http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-
phones/moto-g/21879/moto-g-4g-its-way-2014)) (edit yes that article is old but
I would hate buying it and then seeing a 4G model released, some suppliers are
already out of stock.)

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levosmetalo
Never used Motorola Android phone but I'm thinking about buying this one
somewhere soon. Does Motorola have a practice of "customizing" stock Android
OS? If yes, I guess the only options would be rooting or using some of the
Nexus devices, which are honestly too expensive for what they offer. Is it a
good phone if all I need is more or less stock KitKat that I can use both for
development and as a daily phone.

~~~
patrickaljord
MotoG is basically stock Android and it's actively updated (kitkat already).

~~~
dave809
it's got motorola assist, which is pretty cool

~~~
spindritf
Does it do anything useful? It wants access to my contact list for some reason
which makes me uneasy.

~~~
benjohnson
It uses your address list to figure out if someone is allowed to wake you at
night with a phone call: You set a time when you like to sleep, and if someone
is 'stared' in your address list, it will ring. Otherwise their call will go
to voice mail. There's a handy setting that will allow people who call twice
in five minutes to ring you in your sleep.

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jusben1369
Interestingly my children (12 and 14) won't even look at an Android phone due
to iMessage. So if Google/MOTO/Android are capturing males 16-24 that's a
pretty dang smart strategy of creating power Google Now users who are heading
into the prime of their earning capacity.

~~~
w1ntermute
You're probably in the US if your children are using iMessage so much. Apple's
much smaller marketshare and a lack of unlimited texting plans have made
cross-platform messaging apps like Whatsapp dominant in most of the rest of
the world.

That said, the young males who are buying the G are "low income", so I'm not
sure what their purchasing power down the road will look like. Either way, as
smartphone technology starts to stabilize, there's no reason that this price
point wouldn't become more attractive to wealthier consumers as well.

