I currently have two phones for personal use. A $500 Nexus 6 Android phone made by Motorola with a Snapdragon 805, and a $100 Alcatel Android phone with a MediaTek chip set. Here's the problem: for 95% of my phone usage (including data usage), I can't really tell the difference between my $100 Alcatel Android phone and $500 Nexus 6. Besides the bigger screen of the Nexus 6 (which in many cases is a problem to carry around since it's so big), I check my email, my calendar, my text messages, browser the web a little, and use Google Maps, maybe flip through a few pictures, and take a few pictures when I don't carry around my $4000 DSLR Camera or my GoPro Camera, and run a few financial applications. I'm not a heavy gamer on the cell phone, nor do I really watch videos on my phone.. If I had to choose keeping one phone, I'd probably pick the $100 Alcatel phone, since it's much more convenient in size, and because I can accidentally drop 5 of them and crack the screen before being out the same cost if I just drop the nexus 6 just one time. In fact the only reason why I have a Nexus 6, is because I do development on it off to the side, and because I can run a custom ROM image on it for development. For for real life, day to day use, I carry the $100 Alcatel phone more than my Nexus 6....Android has gotten so good and cheap hardware so good, that I really can't tell the difference for most daily use..And here lies the big problem....MediaTek is in that $100 cheap Alcatel phone, whereas that $500 nexus 6 has the snapdragon 805 + the LTE modem. Moving forward, I wonder if I really need to spend $500 to buy that "better" phone when that $100 phone is "good enough" for almost all of my everyday use.
12 replies (most recent on top)
No differentiation is possible by selling "differentiating" chipsets to any OEM who wants to buy. That's the other end of "good enough"...."equally amazing". Leaves us slaves to whatever OEM has hit device at the moment.
I find it ironic, that despite a dismal quarter, dismal next quarter, a loss of market share by Samsung S6 and other tier 1 Android phone makers to lower cost makers, that you still don't get why the Q is having such a big problem. What product differentiation on the Android ecosystem? Most people aren't going to be using 8 cores on a cell phone, and most people can't tell the difference between any of the LTE chips, or for that matter, know even what LTE is.
Yup, both phones can search for stale repetitive rants via keyword "Good Enough"
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/4629663439650816 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/6500687458336768 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5738888106606592 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5452041845473280 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5718595355017216 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5703269942820864 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5752592550330368 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/6503130439090176 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/6395282099011584 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5191244066062336 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/6032780836208640 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5724667293728768 ...
https://www.thelayoff.com/qualcomm/post/5720731761508352 ...
Anonymous122606,
Well then, can you name the top 10 things that you can do with a Nexus 6 that you can't do with a cheaper Android Alcatel one phone?
"Using the same reasoning, why would someone want to buy an expensive luxury car just for a daily commute to work when a cheap economy car does the job?"...
Simple, because a BMW 320i lease payment is the same as a Toyota Camry in many cases (or at least close enough to it).
The iphone 6 is completely different because there is no iPhone 6 clone since Apple successfully locked down their ecosystem. Android is completely open (almost). And as far as iPhone 6 is concerned, no chip OEM owns the entire platform, and Q is only in there with the LTE modem (for now), not with the complete solution. Without a complete solution it's much easier for another modem vendor to replace Q's solution. And intel/apple is already working on introducing one LTE modem in one iphone submarket.
Copy paste rant. Same old "good enough" thesis. This column is worse then Krugman or Friedman
your story doesn't explain the recent sale record growth of iPhone6/6+.
ask Raj Talluri
put both of them in your vuh-zuh-na
Using the same reasoning, why would someone want to buy an expensive luxury car just for a daily commute to work when a cheap economy car does the job?
Oh, and just for the record. Both of my phones are not subsidized phones by the carrier. I paid for the phones unlocked out of contract. Most carriers no longer subsidize the phones, so you either buy the phone outright, or make install payments that finances the phone. I also think that had something to do with my some people are choosing not to upgrade. Now that people feel that they have to pay $500-600 for a new phone, some people are opting out of upgrading regularly. Before, the subsidized phone's cost were buried into the carrier's cell phone, so fewer people noticed.