[ad_1]
Ad yesterday at Google By opening the entry / exit speech, the Pixel 3a comes at a difficult time for the smartphone industry. Sales figures have stagnated for most of the major players in the industry – a phenomenon against which Google is certainly not immune.
CEO Sundar Pichai discussed it thoroughly when he called on the company's first quarter results last week. "While the first quarter results reflect the pressure in the high-end smartphone sector," he explained, "we are delighted with the current momentum of home devices compatible with the Assistant, especially Home Hub and Mini hubs, and we look forward to our May 7th announcement to I / O from our hardware team. "
This latter element clearly referred to the arrival of the new budget level of Google's flagship offering. The 3a is a major asset to tackle one of the major factors slowing down smartphone sales. With a starting price of $ 399, it represents only a fraction of the price of the best handsets of competitors like Apple and Samsung.
Flagship prices have risen fairly rapidly in recent years. Handsets that start north of $ 1,000 no longer deserve a second look, while many upcoming folding phones are around double.
Mario Queiroz, Google's vice president of product management at Google, announced it before launching: "The smartphone market has started to subside. We think that one of the reasons is that, you know, the premium segment of the market is a very important segment, but premium phones have become more and more expensive, you know, three or four years ago, you could buy a premium phone for $ 500. "
The inflated prices have certainly made the purchase of appliances more expensive for buyers. This, coupled with a relative lack of compelling new features, slowed down the upgrade cycles, which hurt sales.
I took advantage of my first hours of contact with 3a. It is important to note the various factors that allowed Google to reach this stage. Of course, the purchase by Google of vast resources of research and development of HTC. The result of HTC's induction into the substandard hardware manufacturer has resulted in the development of hardware in-house, on the relatively inexpensive of a new campus in Taipei.
Google's ongoing quest to further disassociate the importance of hardware from smartphone upgrades is also important. The company's significant investments in machine learning and artificial intelligence are among the most important innovations in imaging. Devin captured this feeling in this piece written as a result of the iPhone XS announcement.
In particular, the pixel 3a basically has the same camera hardware as the more expensive 3. Google cut some corners, but that was not the case. Depending on the processing power, 3a still has limited capabilities, but the border between what both devices can do is already blurry enough to take pictures.
There is another factor that weighs on pixel sales in all of this – but for a number of reasons, Pichai was not ready to discuss it during the call. For years, the line has been hampered by the exclusivity of operators, which seems to be relegated to the past of smartphones.
This type of arrangement is quite logical for start-up companies such as OnePlus or Palm, who are looking for a way to enter a market while seeking to maintain reasonable growth. But Google certainly has the resources to grow outside of a single market. And the fact is that Huawei has discovered that carrier distribution and contracts are still key drivers of smartphone distribution here in the United States, even though most manufacturers also offer unlocked devices. I suspect that these upfront costs are enough to entice many consumers to make a double decision – even though we all know in our hearts that the contract is ultimately where they get you.
Fortunately, Google has announced that it will make Pixel 3 and 3a available on more media, starting this week. This decision should have a marked impact on Pixel's sales figures. The addition of Sprint and T-Mobile, among others, means a lot more retail space and advertising dollars in the United States. Devices are harder to sell when the average consumer has to find them – not to mention the difficulty of convincing users to switch to a new device.
I do not recommend using second quarter results as a direct measure of Google's 3a call and evolution to a six-month device release cycle. At this early stage, it is too early to dissociate new customers coming on board with additions from these carriers. Nevertheless, the device is an interesting litmus test for the current state of the smartphone, until the return of the headphone jack.
[ad_2]
Source link