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Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

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Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#361

Post by RShiki »

dude_abides wrote: post #197
klausa wrote: post #3

Flagship Android device, unlocked, without contract, for $299. Impressive. From the marketing video it looks like Android 4.2 gained Swype-like keyboard. It seems that they're no longer using tablet UI, even on Nexus 10 (i.e. it has status bar on top, navigation buttons are in the middle of the screen). That's weird, and I definitely don't like it, but it might not be that big of a problem.

Very impressive pricing! On the other hand, it doesn't support LTE. When will Google realize that basic things like fast network speed are more important than fancy things like face unlock and NFC.

LTE isn't even available yet in my country and it's not the third world, but France. 300 euros is cheap for a smartphone like the Nexus 4, in comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is 500 euros on amazon.fr and it's the cheapest price you can get for it, it's more like 600 euros everywhere else.

The lack of LTE won't be a dealbreaker for most people, and probably even those who live in the USA. $300 hits the right price point for a flagship phone and the upside of owning a nexus and getting Google's support is huge. I'd rather get an iPhone than an android that is not a Nexus. Both OS are constantly evolving and getting better, waiting for the carriers and OEM to get their shit together is getting old.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#362

Post by codeulike »

sigzero wrote: post #270
codeulike wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> faster than we think Surface Pro, hopefully.

Surface Pro will not compete in the same space. Pricing alone will push it out of that space.

OK, but if you're looking for tablets that can be proper desktop replacements (as parent comment says), its not going to be cheap

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#363

Post by KirinDave »

sergiotapia wrote: post #2

The idea of owning a tablet by Google creeps me out to no end. I just can't picture myself using this without the lingering feeling of having Big Brother tracking me, watching me, keeping tabs on what sites I visit and what content I post online.

They are. But no more than any other vendor is.

The difference is Google gives you all sorts of services to export those insights and use them for your own benefit. Most of the google tracking data is exported (with the big exception being the backing to Google Now for card selection). But most people don't realize how much data you can farm from the Latitude API.

The problem we face is that a lot of the features we want delivered from our products are really only achievable if we offer up our data for analysis to some big external compute farm. We aren't at the point yet where your mobile devices can do it in house. So we have things we want, but the only way to get those things is to take a privacy risk.

But this is hardly a new situation. Why do you trust your banks not to do this? Credit card providers? Stores? Loan and insurance issuers? Cellphone vendors? I'm asking why you are not creeped out or outraged all the time because a trivial search of the landscape reveals all these institutions are doing such things but not providing any value back to you for it.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#364

Post by RShiki »

gms wrote: post #65
wmf wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, these prices look almost too good to be true. Other Android vendors may be getting some serious indigestion from this.

Nexus 7 devices are being sold at a loss, so I suppose in one sense yes, the price there is too good to be true.

It's not sold at a loss, but with a very low profit margin. At a loss would mean that they're actually bearing the cost of manufacturing the device even after they got your money, which is not true.

They also get a much higher profit margin on the 16gb (now the 32gb for the Nexus 7) than on the 8gb which is what a lot of people will buy. There isn't a $50 cost in manufacturing a device with 16gb more of storage but there is a $50 markup for the customers who want more local storage. Storage is much, much cheaper than what you're paying for when you buy a tablet or phone with bigger SSDs. The profit margins on the 64gb iPhones are INSANE compared to the profit margins on the 16gb.

The base, $300 Nexus 4 is going to have a paltry 8gb. Most of the heavy users are going to spend the $50 more for the 16gb, while the $300 will still be there to please those who have to be more careful with their money.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#365

Post by jonknee »

_djo_ wrote: post #330
jonknee wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but the profit made is tiny in comparison to the giant margins they make on iOS devices ($700 iPhones that cost $175 to make really pad the bottom line).

It does not cost $175 to make, that's just the estimated bill of materials (BOM) cost. The actual cost to manufacture includes labour, design, shipping, testing, storage and dozens of other things. Apple's gross margins on its devices, essentially the selling price less the manufacturing costs, is about 30-40% company-wide. That translates into an operating margin (which includes all costs) in the 20-30% range. That'…

> Apple's gross margins on its devices, essentially the selling price less the manufacturing costs, is about 30-40% company-wide. That translates into an operating margin (which includes all costs) in the 20-30% range.

Of course there are other expenses (those $10M Apple Stores don't build themselves), but you're incorrect about the operating margin. For Q4 2012 AAPL had an operating margin of 34% (gross margin was 40%).

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#366

Post by RShiki »

_djo_ wrote: post #330
jonknee wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but the profit made is tiny in comparison to the giant margins they make on iOS devices ($700 iPhones that cost $175 to make really pad the bottom line).

It does not cost $175 to make, that's just the estimated bill of materials (BOM) cost. The actual cost to manufacture includes labour, design, shipping, testing, storage and dozens of other things. Apple's gross margins on its devices, essentially the selling price less the manufacturing costs, is about 30-40% company-wide. That translates into an operating margin (which includes all costs) in the 20-30% range. That'…

The entry level, 16gb iPhone has a profit margin that is bigger than average, but not huge. The 64gb iPhone on the other hand.. it's like printing money. The markup doesn't even begin to compare to what the bigger storage actually cost to Apple. Apple makes a LOOOOT of money out of the customers who have bigger needs than average.

That's been Apple's strategy forever, people who want more have to pay a lot more than what it's really worth. I can remember the entry level iBook (during the PPC days) being sold with goddamn combo DVD reader/CD writer drives in a time where EVERY SINGLE PC LAPTOP SOLD, even the cheapest crap, had a DVD writer. Just to push people onto the higher profit margin.

I love Apple products but they really know how to milk their customers dry. Hacker News's audience wouldn't fall for that, but I can remember the markup on ram, when they still sold devices with 1 or 2gb of ram when the competition had 4gb on their cheapest stuff, with huge markups on the online apple store if you ordered a laptop with more ram. People here know how to put more ram in their computers and know not to order a macbook with "Apple's ram" (... a traditional thing that is going to die with the retina mbp and its soldered ram), but the average joe just got ripped off hardcore.

If you only look at their entry products, like the 16gb iPhone, the 21" iMac, the 11" MBA, yeah, Apple seems reasonable. Any other Apple product ? the margins on those things is something no one else could pull off without getting lynched.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#367

Post by asdfs »

mtgx wrote: post #277
pooriaazimi wrote: post #49

The screen for 10.1" model is great: 2560x1600 (300ppi) - iPad (3 and 4) are 2048x1536 (264ppi). Which means it has 30% more pixels (409600 vs. 3145728).

It's actually 10" not 10.1".

It's 10.055" according to the blog post, so either one is correct. It depends on whether you round to the nearest inch or tenth of an inch.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#368

Post by voltagex_ »

distantparts wrote: post #223
wmf wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, these prices look almost too good to be true. Other Android vendors may be getting some serious indigestion from this.

You can't imagine that Samsung will be thrilled about the Nexus 4. The Galaxy S3 suddenly looks poor value, and that's their flagship device. It was selling in big numbers, and although it's cheaper than the iPhone 5, presumably it's still a very profitable device. If Google are determined to sell high quality devices at cost to gain market share, and can make the general public aware of this (non-trivial), Apple may…

The Nexus 4 maxes out at 16gb available storage and there's no expansion. It only really competes with the base model S3.

It's Samsung's own fault they haven't got the 4.2 update out properly yet.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#369

Post by scubaguy »

klausa wrote: post #3

Flagship Android device, unlocked, without contract, for $299. Impressive. From the marketing video it looks like Android 4.2 gained Swype-like keyboard. It seems that they're no longer using tablet UI, even on Nexus 10 (i.e. it has status bar on top, navigation buttons are in the middle of the screen). That's weird, and I definitely don't like it, but it might not be that big of a problem.

>> It seems that they're no longer using tablet UI, even on Nexus 10

Maybe this is for consistency. I find it a bit of a mental shift when I used the Nexus 7 with the tablet UI. I assume I'd prefer the status on top look & feel on the Nexus 10 as well. I know not everyone prefers status & notification on top, but I'm used to it and I like the consistency of it across phone & tablet.

Re: Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes

#370

Post by RShiki »

jusben1369 wrote: post #76
jeswin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

via Gizmodo: Quad-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB RAM, 8GB storage, 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 display, and an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera. Impressive indeed!

It's interesting they havent' done a front facing camera. That's big with the tween crowd. Edit: I meant rear facing on the Nexus 7. Not front facing.

I don't see the point of a rear camera on a tablet. The kind of people who have enough spending income to afford a tablet usually own a smartphone, or even a feature phone, that has a rear camera. Why would you want a crappy rear camera on your tablet ? for a $200 price point like the Nexus 7, you'd never get anything better than what a cheap feature phone can do.

Any kid that has a parent that would buy them a Nexus 7 has at least a feature phone with a camera that'd be as good as what you could put on the N7, if not better.

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