The Nexus 5 is a fascinating phone. In an era where Apple has set the luxury tone, and everyone is trying to follow suit in colors and chamfered edges, Google just said no. No, it won’t be luxury. In fact, it’ll be unapologetically cheap.
That’s a refreshing breath of honesty, and a clever way to sidestep one of Apple’s core strengths. If Google doesn’t have to compete on bringing luxury to the masses, they can compete on other things.
What’s scary for Apple is just how well that strategy appears to work when the main interface of the device is just all glass. Because while the Nexus 5 comes in a cheap plastic wrapping, the screen itself is gorgeous. Big, bright, and appealing. It’s very clear that this is where the bulk of the $349 purchase price went. Well that and the fast processor.
What it comes down to is that Google has made an appliance. A boring, no-thrills appliance. This is not a work of art. But it doesn’t pretend to be a work of art. That’s what has made all the Apple imitations so pathetic for so long. Remember the HP Envy (and can you believe that HP has left that embarrassment of a video online)? If you stand in the shadow of Apple’s luxury and design prowess, you will shiver.
It takes real vision to reject the prevalent frame of the market. Google has done just that with the Nexus 5. An appliance so good for what it is, that you realize that luxury is optional.
Ryan
on 11 Nov 13The way Google would prefer carriers to be dump pipes, it too would prefer hardware to be dumb hardware. Sort of odd considering they just spent billions of dollars on Motorola but I think it makes perfect sense to their model: billions of people carrying no nonsense, generic screens with which they interact with the net.
Jamie
on 11 Nov 13I think Google’s mobile Android strategy could prove effective in the long run if people continue to mainly use phones for texting, email, Facebook, and taking pictures/movies of family, and the casual gaming (Tiny Death Star). None of this is lock-in to Apple’s domain.
iPad is another story…
Jim
on 11 Nov 13I swapped my iPhone 4 for a Nexus 4 and I wouldn’t consider going back. In fact, I just ordered a Nexus 5. My wife is still using an iPhone 4s that we just recently upgraded to iOS7 and now I’m even less interested in switching back to an iPhone.
The cost wasn’t the issue for me at all, however. I do like buying a phone completely independent of my carrier and the Nexus 5 is certainly a lot of phone for the money. But I think it’s a mistake to assume that Android is beating iOS (in terms of market share) because it comes on cheaper devices. There are a lot of folks who choose Android, not because of cost, but because we genuinely prefer it to iOS.
Robert
on 11 Nov 13That HP Envy commercial has got to be a joke lol.
Scott
on 11 Nov 13The Google / Apple phone question is really quite simple for some of us. It isn’t luxury vs good enough, it isn’t iOS vs Android. It’s this: when I buy an Apple product I am Apples’ customer and they treat me great. When I buy a Google product (or use a service) advertisers are the customer and I am the product being sold.
Most people genuinely don’t understand this, and some just don’t care. But I do.
thomas
on 11 Nov 13Okay that is the Nexus 5 but what do people say about the LG G2? And what do you say David? Greeting from Denmark :)
Amaury
on 11 Nov 13You have to take a Nexus 5 in your hands to see that it’s definitively not a cheap device. It feels soft, clean, not encumbered with any unnecessary design details… Sure, it’s glass and plastic, not glass and metal; but for some people, aluminium is unnecessarily flashy, and some plastics are not cheap.
Erik Neu
on 12 Nov 13The whole luxury / plastic-is-cheap / build quality thing is way overblown. A phone is not jewelry—especially when everybody else has the same or equivalent. The thing should operate well and generally feel solid. That’s good enough. Especially since you need to put a case on it, for safety, no matter what. Industrial design has its place, but it is not an end unto itself.
Naofumi
on 12 Nov 13The iphone is a luxury product that you can get for free, or for a highly subsidized price. With iPhones, the carriers are willing to pay the price difference because they bring in customers loyal for 2 years.
Why?
Remember that, like SaaS, wireless carriers are a largely fixed cost business, so any incremental customers are pure profit.
NearlyNormal
on 13 Nov 13Nexus5 may be Google’s mass market trojan horse, but it’s not like Google is making a bold move away from Apple business. There’s Motorola, that’s investing in all kinds of idiosyncratic choices bordering on someone’s wise idea of luxury. Three choices of wood, 252 colors and sschemes, and whatnot—MotoX. So Google has its bets hedged.
Jamie
on 13 Nov 13@NearlyNormal that’s true. But as David says, when you try to play Apple’s game consumers don’t seem to get it. Check out this article on The Verge yesterday: Moto X doesn’t mark the spot: only 500,000 devices sold so far, report says
Moto X is a great phone. And “Made in the USA” (USA! USA! USA!). Disappointing adoption rate is so low.
GeeIWonder
on 13 Nov 13@Jamie—Great point
@Scott—In reference to something Jamie hints at, maybe in point of fact you ARE the product in Apple’s case, supporting a trade deficit and borrowing to do it.
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Sasha
on 13 Nov 13@Scott unless the intent of this comment is to be deliberately misleading, Apple has been in the advertising game for a long time. If you believe that you are not being treated in exactly the same manner by both companies you referenced, then you should reconsider.
Typesetting admirer
on 13 Nov 13@Jamie/@David et al at 37signals:
Please update your styling of the blockquote (and q) element to be indented. I don’t see why it’s an allowed element in comments if it doesn’t render in a visible manner.
This discussion is closed.