Google pulls plug on Nexus One • Hacker News Board

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#151

Post by gonehome » Sun, Jul 25, 2010, 3:20 AM UTC

jedbrown wrote: post #43

gonehome wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tmobile requires a more expensive plan to recover the cost of allowing you to buy the phone subsidized. If you buy it unlocked over two years (and you're not a family plan) you save around $600 compared to buying it on contract.

Um, this number sounds high. My recollection is that there is a $20/month difference in price so you are effectively paying an extra $480 towards a phone over two years. If the difference in up-front cost for the device is less than this, buying off-contract is cheaper.

There's a $40/month difference in price if you use google voice for texting and get the $10 data plan. (You change your phone online to one eligible for it and change the APN on your nexus one)

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#152

Post by kelnos » Sat, Jul 31, 2010, 10:47 AM UTC

ericd wrote: post #99

kelnos wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect that to be the case? Can you install Windows 7 on your 2000-era PC? Can you even install it on your 2005-era PC and expect it to perform well? Some phones will be updated, and some will not. Some won't get the update because: 1. The hardware is too old/slow/underpowered/too little RAM for the new OS 2. The manufacturer/carrier doesn't give a damn and doesn't feel like pouring money into an old ph…

Some phones are too slow, but I think the vast majority of android phones in the wild (by number sold) fall under the umbrella of #2 right now, and that's the much bigger issue. It's hard for a consumer to tell whether the phone they're picking up will be supported a year after the fact. That is a problem with the structure of the Android ecosystem, which by extension is a complaint with Android itself.

I don't agree. How is Google going to require that all manufacturers of Android phones continue to support each model with sometimes-major OS upgrades for X number of years? Why would they even want to?

Apple has, what... 8 devices (4 generations of iPhone, 3 of iPod Touch, and the iPad) out? Hell, at least that many new Android phones have or will come out this year alone!

And even Apple can't keep all their devices up-to-date: people with the iPhone 3G are reporting slowness and instability with iOS 4. I imagine the 1st-gen iPod Touch (and maybe even 2nd-gen) would have trouble as well. And last I read, iOS 4 isn't available yet for the iPad. So Apple's track record is (on the generous side) that 50% of their potentially-capable devices work with iOS 4.

There's an easy way to solve the "what version of Android does this phone I'm considering buying have on it?" problem -- ask a salesperson. If they don't know, ask the manufacturer. Or just google for it. I'm sure someone else has the phone and has noted it somewhere, or some reviewer has gotten a review unit and has noted the version.

And how do you know if it's going to get upgrades? You go by the manufacturer's past record with such things. The interwebs can tell you all this, and more.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#153

Post by kelnos » Sat, Jul 31, 2010, 10:55 AM UTC

megablast wrote: post #111

kelnos wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect that to be the case? Can you install Windows 7 on your 2000-era PC? Can you even install it on your 2005-era PC and expect it to perform well? Some phones will be updated, and some will not. Some won't get the update because: 1. The hardware is too old/slow/underpowered/too little RAM for the new OS 2. The manufacturer/carrier doesn't give a damn and doesn't feel like pouring money into an old ph…

I would be pretty annoyed if I couldn't install W7 on the laptop I bought today. Well, actually I wouldn't, I hate Windows 7, but you get my point. We are not dealing with old hardware, we are dealing with problematic manufacturers and carriers. This is the same problem we had in the past, but it is more of an issue now. This is what Apple freed us from, no matter what carrier it is on in the world, I can upgrade my…

> I would be pretty annoyed if I couldn't install W7 on the laptop I bought today.

Huh? We're not talking about the laptop (phone) you bought today. We're talking about the one you bought a year (or more) ago.

And the laptop comparison is limited: new laptops generally have more than enough power to run the current OS and apps. Embedded devices usually have just enough and not much more. People don't like to buy $1000 phones, so we get a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon with 512MB of RAM instead of a dual-core 1GHz Tegra2 with 1GB of RAM.

> This is the same problem we had in the past, but it is more of an issue now. This is what Apple freed us from, no matter what carrier it is on in the world, I can upgrade my phone.

Well, unless you have an iPhone 3G -- reports are that iOS4 is unstable and slow as hell.

And I have a Nexus One, and I can use it on whatever carrier I like, and upgrade it to whatever software I like. Granted, custom Android mods aren't for your average consumer, but I expect (ok, wishfully hope) that to change in the next few years.

Re: Google pulls plug on Nexus One

#154

Post by kelnos » Sat, Jul 31, 2010, 10:59 AM UTC

naturalized wrote: post #96

kelnos wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect that to be the case? Can you install Windows 7 on your 2000-era PC? Can you even install it on your 2005-era PC and expect it to perform well? Some phones will be updated, and some will not. Some won't get the update because: 1. The hardware is too old/slow/underpowered/too little RAM for the new OS 2. The manufacturer/carrier doesn't give a damn and doesn't feel like pouring money into an old ph…

In order the remedy this problem, the unlocked multi-carrier phones should be just as available as ISP-neutral PCs. This is clearly not the case, a typical user does not know where or how to buy an unlocked Droid X (and even if they bought it on eBay, it only works on Verizon anyway). So your comparison is not adequate.

Sure, the laptop comparison falls down in some ways, but I'd argue that your point argues in favor of mine. A phone is much more locked down and difficult to upgrade. Most customers won't upgrade unless it comes in a nice automatic OTA package from the carrier or manufacturer. With PCs you have the option to relatively easily purchase or download a major new OS version and install it yourself. PCs are commodity hardware; phones are not (yet).

The fact that unlocked multi-carrier phones aren't readily available is a problem with how the carriers and wireless service works, and has nothing to do with Android, or iOS, for that matter.