“For years the Android fanboy argument has been that the iPhone is too expensive and that Android offers them a way to get a high-end smartphone for a fraction of the price,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports for ZDNet.
MacDailyNews Take: Never mind the total lack of a coherent, usable, and secure ecosystem, of course.
“Google just destroyed that argument with the Pixel and the Pixel XL,” Kingsley-Hughes reports. “Once you start wanting custom components, that’s when things start getting expensive, and your R&D bills really start to swell. Take something as simple as the sapphire lens covering the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone. That single thing required R&D, getting a supply chain figured out for the materials, cutting the lens, quality control, assembly and testing. And this is just for a single, inanimate, simple part.”
“Now, as an example specific to the Pixel, consider that new camera,” Kingsley-Hughes reports. “Google spent a lot of money on that module.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google’s Pixel phones are slow, overpriced, insecure, privacy-trampling iPhone-wannabes.
SEE ALSO:
Benchmarks prove Apple’s iPhone 7 easily outperforms new Google’s anemic Pixel – October 5, 2016
Beleaguered HTC assembles Google-branded Pixel phones – October 4, 2016
Google announces Google-branded iPhone knockoffs, again – October 4, 2016
Edward Snowden: No matter what, do not use Google’s new Allo messenger app – September 23, 2016
Apple takes a swing at privacy-tampling, personal data-guzzling rivals like Google – September 29, 2015
Apple reinvents the privacy policy – September 29, 2015
Apple selling targeted ads, but their new privacy policies shows they think different about tracking – September 29, 2015
Apple: Hey Siri and Live Photos data stays only on your device to ensure privacy – September 12, 2015
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 2015
Edward Snowden supports Apple’s stance on customer privacy – June 17, 2015
Mossberg: Apple’s latest product is privacy – June 12, 2015
Apple looks to be building an alternative to the Google-branded, hand-over-your-privacy ‘Internet Experience’ – June 11, 2015
Understanding Apple and privacy – June 8, 2015
Edward Snowden: Apple is a privacy pioneer – June 5, 2015
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
and Google didn’t have any need to pay for design studies, thanks to Lucy Koh.
Wow, that much money for a figurative, AND literal bomb? You’re better off making your own using ISIS approved materials! Is Google halal now?
Are they plastic?
Will all the critic’s go after them about supplier’s, slave labor, dangerous chemical’s, environmental concerns, how much the sale’s people are paid?
I truly doubt it.
The back of that Pixel phone is really freaking ugly. If you saw it without knowing it’s from Google you’d think it’s a really shitty Chinese knock-off. And that Suicide Blue color…just nasty.
“…you’d think it’s a really shitty Chinese knock-off”
what else would you think, given that it is?
Yes, but after it bombs, you’ll be able get all those BOGF deals in six months–take that you Apple-girlymen.
Yeah and isn’t that what every cheaptard wants – a BOGOF bomb reject? Juries still out if Google has overtaken SamSplode in copycat mobile incendiary power.
Google is likely trying to shed their ‘cheap/free offerings’ reputation. They’re not known for premium products or services. They do one thing well- search. So maybe they’re hoping that people will see their products as premium priced and assume it’s a premium product.
For any price, the Pixel is still ANDROID.
AKA cheap quality crap. At this point in time, no one has to justify that point. Android remains the single most dangerous operating system available. Infection, PWNing, botting are constantly looming, even if you stick with the Google Play store. The ONLY benefit I see here is that at least Google can push out timely Android security updates to the Pixoid, as opposed to all the OEM Android pushers.
Both are ridiculously priced.
Might as well try it before you criticize, no?
As apple shareholders, you may wish for the failure of competitors (though you should diversify your portfolio). But as consumers, shouldn’t we be hoping that a better product comes along?
The best reason to root AGAINST a better device than iPhone is the closed Apple ecosystem, which I’ve complained about before. But that’s like praying your captor doesn’t get killed because you’ll starve to death.
One thing that struck me was that the Pixel demo was done without a wired tether.
A proper multi-platform videochat app (Duo) has promise.. especially after Apple reneged on their promise to make Facetime an open protocol.
Quickcharge would be phenomenal.
Google Assistant as demonstrated seems superior to Siri.
Won’t know until you try it, but who’s to say it’s not a strong product, and why would that be a bad thing?
I always champion the spirit of competition within any business niche. But in this case, the device is still ANDROID. See my post above for the ramifications of that fact. It means FAIL right out of the gate.
From a competition point of view, that’s a shame.
For those in the future who haven’t seen today’s ‘The Joy of Tech’ comic: