Google’s Nexus program is a yearly exploration into how the Mountain View company thinks Android should look and behave. It’s Google’s flavor of Android, which usually means it is the closest thing to “pure” Android you can get. That guarantees the fastest updates, and generally exists as a bloatware-free software experience when compared to the other Android hardware available to consumers.
Over the last two years the Nexus program has also been synonymous with value, as the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 dramatically undercut the competition on price. Google’s latest Nexus device however is a return to regular pricing, and this decision has caused quite a stir.The $350 price tag associated with the Nexus 5 was largely viewed as the continuation of a trend. Google was dropping the price down to cost to increase adoption and make it possible for those with meager budgets to experience high end hardware. It seemed to be Google’s entire playbook last year, in fact.
The $35 Chromecast and sub $200 Nexus 7 tablet all focused on delivering a decent experience at the lowest possible price point. The value was so great that a meme started floating around the Internet mocking Apple for their hardware prices, stating that you could purchase a smartphone, tablet, and HDMI streaming stick from Google for less than you could buy a top-tier iPhone. False equivalence aside, it’s clear that Google got the attention they were hoping for by appealing to wallets.
Unfortunately for those interested only in the lowest possible price tag, the Nexus 6 will not be coming in at $350. Instead Google has opted for a $650 price tag on the Motorola-made behemoth, placing the Nexus 6 back up with the rest of the flagship smartphone prices.
This is significant for several reasons, not least of which is the raised expectations associated with this price bracket.In the previous Nexus models, any flaws that were seen in hardware or software were often immediately dismissed by users. The excuse offered most commonly was that Google had cut corners in order to reach the low price point, and because the rest of the experience was so good it was alright to forgive these flaws. After all, you could buy two Nexus 5’s for the cost of a Galaxy Note 3 so it didn’t really matter that the battery life was mostly terrible and the camera struggled to take decent photos in anything but perfect lighting.
The problem with this logic is that corners weren’t actually cut to reduce cost. The bill of materials for the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 is similar to that of just about every other high end smartphone out there. The same goes for phones like the inexplicably cheap OnePlus One or the Huawei Ascend Mate2. These aren’t phones that are being built intentionally to cut corners, in fact for the most part these are all fantastic handsets worthy of being called flagships. The fact that they all come in at under $400 is based on a decision to sell the phone at as close to the cost as possible, largely so the phone can compete with the likes of Google and Motorola in spaces where the Nexus 5 and Moto G are so popular. As nice as it may be to assume these companies are doing this out of kindness, at the end of the day it’s an unsustainable race to the bottom, and Google has pulled out of the race before things got ugly.
There are unfortunate costs associated with these business practices. Take OnePlus, for example. Their smartphone is an exquisite piece of hardware with some spectacular software onboard that you can’t just walk into a store and buy, and likely never will. OnePlus sells their phone at just about cost, and as a result can only afford to manufacture the device in small batches. Their “invite” system for purchasing is the result of this business practice, and on top of making the phone hard to purchase it makes the phone hard to replace. Ask someone who has replaced aOnePlus One how the warranty experience worked out for them, and get ready for a 20 minute sob story of how the process took weeks and in many cases required a second $350 charge on their card while the mess was sorted. Google has a little more flexibility than OnePlus due to having much deeper pockets, but at the end of the day this is where that race to the bottom leads.
Motorola’s Nexus 6 is sold significantly above cost. We don’t know exactly how much yet, but much like the Galaxy Note 4 and the iPhone 6 there will be at least $200 in profit made on each smartphone. This means Motorola can pay for things like future research and development, support personnel for when you call in with a problem, and cover marketing costs for this device. Much like Apple and Samsung, Google and Motorola aren’t “lining their pockets” by charging more than the bill of materials for their smartphone. The Nexus 6 has more costs associated with it than just building the phone and putting it in a box, and even beyond those costs it really is alright for these companies to make a little money off of the hardware they are selling you. Nexus fans will need to recalibrate their expectations a little, but in return you get a lot more than just a cheap piece of hardware if you do.
Instead of the cheapest, most powerful phone you can buy with Google’s pure experience onboard, the Nexus 6 is going to be a flagship Android phone that you can buy anywhere. It’ll be on the shelves of every electronics store and carrier retail outlet, and it’s going to be treated just like the Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6.
The Nexus 6 is Google’s most complete retail offering to date, and with that comes an heightened set of expectations for the overall experience. With any luck Google and Motorola have created a device that meets or exceeds those expectations and offers the best smartphone period instead of offering the best phone you can get “for the money.”