from Hacker News

Motorola Makes The Moto G Official, A “Premium” Phone Starting At $179 Unlocked

by ajjai on 11/13/13, 2:22 PM with 119 comments

• by cs702 on 11/13/13, 5:33 PM

  This phone looks like a game changer to me, because it has the specs of a high-end smartphone but is priced like a crappy low-end one.

  The cost of an unlocked unit is $300 to $600 LESS than that of other devices with comparable specs, so mobile carriers should be able to offer the Moto G to the masses for hundreds of dollars less than any iPhone or high-end Android device by Samsung, LG, etc.

  Mobile carriers could offer the Moto G profitably at a negative price -- for example, zero money upfront plus an instant $300 coupon rebate if one commits to a two-year plan. Or they could offer it with much cheaper monthly bills than economically possible with other comparable phones -- for example, 25% off one's monthly bill if one commits to a two-year plan.

  --

  Edits: added context and examples.

• by Derbasti on 11/13/13, 4:23 PM

  This is terriffic news! Smartphones are things that drop, that break, that fall into water and that get lost. Shelling out $500 for something this... ephemeral... always seemed absurd to me.

  Or maybe I am just clumsy.

• by rtpg on 11/13/13, 5:14 PM

  I've never understood why the good cell phones (unlocked) always cost something like 500, 600 euros. Glad to see someone trying to push the prices down, especially if it's not Samsung or Apple, to help keep some variety in presence.

  Seeing Motorola as "a Google company" is really weird to me.(https://www.moto-g.com/ ), for some reason it makes me feel like Google is going to become the next GE or something.

• by Cowen on 11/13/13, 5:15 PM

  This sounds like a great offering for an unlocked smartphone. I'm personally in the market for a cheap, unlocked smartphone, and if this is as good as the reviews sound, I'll probably buy one straight away.

  But I think the real test for this phone's market share will be the subsidized price that carriers offer it at, which would have to be substantially lower than current subsidized flagship smartphones. I don't think most smartphone consumers value unlocked phones enough that they would pay a similar amount for one as they would pay for a subsidized iPhone 5S. A subsidized 5C would still be even cheaper than the unlocked Moto G.

  A subsidized $50 Moto G vs. a subsidized $100 iPhone 5C though? I could definitely see that taking off.

• by pacofvf on 11/13/13, 4:24 PM

  It's an excellent price for Latin America, I don't know other parts of the world, at $200 USD it will kill other smartphone vendors (Samsung and other Android mostly http://qz.com/145704/slides-mobile-is-eating-the-world/). Also note that latam region already have the same amount of smartphone sales than Europe or US/Canada.

• by pandeiro on 11/13/13, 10:54 PM

  The $179 price is total bullshit. In Brazil, where the phone was actually launched (and being produced), the price is US$279 (8GB) and US$343 (16GB).

  Not that I, as a Brazilian consumer, am not used to getting dicked on hardware prices for everything. But reading $179 over and over again is kind of making me want to punch my screen.

• by nicholassmith on 11/13/13, 5:53 PM

  I wonder how much Motorola makes per handset at that price point, which could be slightly concerning for the business overall. Google can get away with tiny margins on their physical devices as they're about pushing traffic back to their services, making more money residually, but Motorola makes money by selling hardware for a profit.

  It's great for consumers when price comes down, but that could leave businesses fighting to try get prices down and reduce overall profit, meaning they're unable to throw as much into R&D, or cut back on customer support or a dozen other areas. It's certainly an interesting marketplace at the moment, most manufacturers seem to be slashing prices reasonably heavily.

• by r00fus on 11/13/13, 7:05 PM

  No way this competes with real high end phones like S4, HTC One, iPhone5 or later.

  What it does is compete very well against the iPhone4, 4S, S3, and older premium phones.

  If you're adding a line to a family plan and want a phone that isn't basic, then this becomes very appealing as the iOS/Samsung/HTC/Nokia alternative will cost you either a 2 year subscription, or be $300 or more unlocked.

  Considering people will still buy iPhones because they want something simple, the attack is really against Samsung and other manufacturers.

• by darrenkopp on 11/13/13, 4:27 PM

  This is great, I was ready to buy a MotoX until I saw it was $750 unlocked, when at the same time the Nexus 4 was only $350. I'm not surprised that they didn't sell that many of them.

• by mactitan on 11/13/13, 4:53 PM

  From the article: There’s no LTE on board, which makes sense given the target market (growing, developed countries where LTE is in limited supply or nonexistent).

• by r00fus on 11/13/13, 6:19 PM

  From the article: "The 4.5-inch display, with 720p, 329 PPI resolution is the “hero feature” of the phone, and it outperforms the iPhone 5s according to Motorola."

  I'm assuming they're talking about the display outperforming (bizarre wording) the iPhone5S? Because the stats don't seem to make it comparable much less leading the current performance champ...

• by 001sky on 11/14/13, 7:41 AM

  This is a great product/market fit. Full Kudo's to google on this. If it is a success, i think they will get a Halo effect for their brand. That being said, lets hop there's no surprises in the SW bundle, performances, settings etc.

• by peterwwillis on 11/13/13, 5:54 PM

  I was talking to representatives from Lyft at a festival here in Baltimore, and I asked them if they had any plans to support non-smartphones like mine, or any other way to use their service. "No" was the answer.

  I realized, this was genius! They could ensure only wealthy customers used their service, creating a vacuum in which the upper class could use transportation in style and comfort, without having to interface with "those kinds" of people. Also ensuring their customer base was (relatively) well-behaved and polite.

  Hopefully cheaper phones like this can fuck with these digital social classes.

• by Zigurd on 11/13/13, 4:24 PM

  This makes much more sense than the Moto X in terms of differentiating Motorola and charting a course that isn't "me too" and competitive with Google's first tier OEM partners.

• by jimktrains2 on 11/13/13, 5:21 PM

  I guess it's not CMDA (Verizon) compatible.

  It sure looks nice otherwise, AND it has an FM radio. I hate that most new models have dropped that.

  EDIT: Reformatting

• by yabatopia on 11/14/13, 12:51 AM

  It would be very 'premium' if it supported Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) right out of the box. The specs only mention Bluetooth 4.0, but sadly that's not enough for real BLE support on Android pre 4.4 KitKat. An unexpensive Android smartphone that works with my Fitbit Flex and other BLE devices would be awesome.

• by ccozan on 11/13/13, 3:27 PM

  I hoped it is based on the X8 architecture, but is just "normal". So it makes not sense to compare it with Moto X, is a different phone, different target, is no "little brother", more like a distant "poor cousin".

• by nazgulnarsil on 11/13/13, 6:44 PM

  got an unlocked LG L9 months ago for $179 with a 4.5 inch screen and LTE. It has been discontinued now, but I have been wondering why LG seemed to be the only company capable of coming out with decent spec phones at decent prices.

• by tsunamifury on 11/13/13, 3:46 PM

  A competitive globally accessible phone price would be $50, not $200. This feels more like a cheap 1st world phone than a global one.

  ZTE and other have already made 50 dollar phones using Android and Windows + Asha won't be far behind at $60.

  Motorola has a long ways to go (4x price reduction) to truly get their android devices into India, China And other poorer regions of South America and Africa.