New Nexus Lineup
Well this is an interesting development. But then phones are an interesting category of hardware.
A couple things of note are the prices of the phones and the positioning of the tablet.
Nexus phones were generally good phones but with a budget price. But, then they never truly were budget priced. And it never really mattered. Partly because of what makes phones an interesting hardware category; carrier subsidization.
I would wager most phones sold in North America are sold subsidized on contract. As long as a phone can sell for $100 or less on contract it has a decent chance of being seen as affordable regardless of what the off contract price is. In that respect, the new Nexus phones are likely every bit as affordable as their predecessors.
A true budget phone would cost under $100 off contract, maybe up to $150. Phones exist in this range... but they are a case of you getting what you paid for generally. And people aren't blind to this. And often hold this to be true even when it isn't. Which is actually part of the flaw in Microsoft's strategy. N.A. doesn't care much about cheap phones. For this market they should be aiming in the $350-600 range with maybe one premium offering above that. That way people will see the off contract price and then consider the phone valuable even when they get it either free or cheap on a contract.
I think the Lumia 830 for instance was a smart move in this respect, it is in a sweet spot where it will be cheap or free even out of the gates on a 2year with most carriers, but the MSRP is high enough to infer some amount of quality.
We'll see what impact the increased price has on the new Nexus phone over time. But, honestly, after a few months it will probably cost the same as the old one on a contract. The perceived increased quality (and actual increased quality) that comes with the MSRP may actually lead to increased sales... not reduced sales. I think this is a smart move on Google and Motorola's part. I'm interested to see, hardware wise how this phone stacks up.
On the tablet front, things are somehow even more interesting. It seems like Google is finally trying to take a stab at the Surface/Windows 8 tablet market by coming out of the gates with a tablet with a keyboard cover.
This is interesting for a few key reasons. I suspected they didn't make this move with Android in the past to protect the Chromebook brand. To me, this is an admission that Chromebook's are a failure and now defunct. We'll see if they release any more and for how long after this. But shipping a keyboard explicitly for this tablet is clearly a move to position it as a hybrid/potential laptop replacement in my mind.
Even more interesting is perhaps the timing. Tablet sales are actually shrinking and traditional laptop/PC sales and phone sales are cannibalizing those numbers. So, it will be interesting to see whether this development is too late to have a lasting impact on how Android is perceived. If successful, people may be supplanting laptop purchases with Nexus tablet purchases making these a primary computing device for many. If it fails it likely won't have much harmful impact, though it is possible it could hurt the Android image on tablets.
I think the hurdle here is that cheap Windows laptops are more powerful and more capable than Android tablets (or even Apple tablets) and cheaper. What I mean is, while there are $300 and cheaper tablets out there, no one would replace a $300 laptop with a $300 tablet. Quality tablets you might use for productivity purposes are $400-600+ and they don't keep pace with power, capabilities and performance in laptops as prices scale in that direction.
Doesn't mean it won't succeed. As I've said before, the better product isn't always the one that wins.
A couple things of note are the prices of the phones and the positioning of the tablet.
Nexus phones were generally good phones but with a budget price. But, then they never truly were budget priced. And it never really mattered. Partly because of what makes phones an interesting hardware category; carrier subsidization.
I would wager most phones sold in North America are sold subsidized on contract. As long as a phone can sell for $100 or less on contract it has a decent chance of being seen as affordable regardless of what the off contract price is. In that respect, the new Nexus phones are likely every bit as affordable as their predecessors.
A true budget phone would cost under $100 off contract, maybe up to $150. Phones exist in this range... but they are a case of you getting what you paid for generally. And people aren't blind to this. And often hold this to be true even when it isn't. Which is actually part of the flaw in Microsoft's strategy. N.A. doesn't care much about cheap phones. For this market they should be aiming in the $350-600 range with maybe one premium offering above that. That way people will see the off contract price and then consider the phone valuable even when they get it either free or cheap on a contract.
I think the Lumia 830 for instance was a smart move in this respect, it is in a sweet spot where it will be cheap or free even out of the gates on a 2year with most carriers, but the MSRP is high enough to infer some amount of quality.
We'll see what impact the increased price has on the new Nexus phone over time. But, honestly, after a few months it will probably cost the same as the old one on a contract. The perceived increased quality (and actual increased quality) that comes with the MSRP may actually lead to increased sales... not reduced sales. I think this is a smart move on Google and Motorola's part. I'm interested to see, hardware wise how this phone stacks up.
On the tablet front, things are somehow even more interesting. It seems like Google is finally trying to take a stab at the Surface/Windows 8 tablet market by coming out of the gates with a tablet with a keyboard cover.
This is interesting for a few key reasons. I suspected they didn't make this move with Android in the past to protect the Chromebook brand. To me, this is an admission that Chromebook's are a failure and now defunct. We'll see if they release any more and for how long after this. But shipping a keyboard explicitly for this tablet is clearly a move to position it as a hybrid/potential laptop replacement in my mind.
Even more interesting is perhaps the timing. Tablet sales are actually shrinking and traditional laptop/PC sales and phone sales are cannibalizing those numbers. So, it will be interesting to see whether this development is too late to have a lasting impact on how Android is perceived. If successful, people may be supplanting laptop purchases with Nexus tablet purchases making these a primary computing device for many. If it fails it likely won't have much harmful impact, though it is possible it could hurt the Android image on tablets.
I think the hurdle here is that cheap Windows laptops are more powerful and more capable than Android tablets (or even Apple tablets) and cheaper. What I mean is, while there are $300 and cheaper tablets out there, no one would replace a $300 laptop with a $300 tablet. Quality tablets you might use for productivity purposes are $400-600+ and they don't keep pace with power, capabilities and performance in laptops as prices scale in that direction.
Doesn't mean it won't succeed. As I've said before, the better product isn't always the one that wins.
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