Competition to the Moto G

[Scott7217]

So, what will the Moto G be competing against in the marketplace?

I would cite the Samsung Galaxy Express as a contender. Amazon has it on sale for $199.99. It has LTE, microSD for expandable storage, and a removable battery. On the downside, it has a lower resolution screen (480 x 800), a dual-core processor, and the display does not have Gorilla Glass. (Some people may not like the TouchWiz software on it, either.) It's also locked to AT&T, which doesn't help people who want to bring it to T-Mobile in the US.

Can you name another contender to the Moto G?

 

[BuffOrange]

Honestly I think the Nokia 521 is about the only thing that is close for the price. At least that's what I would've gone with for my parents if the G didn't come out. Don't really see much else for Android.

 

[Ry]

Competition on the big four will come from pre-paid phones like the LG Optimus F3, Nokia 520, Nokia 521, Nokia Lumia 710, Samsung Galaxy Express, Samsung Galaxy Legend, and the carrier-branded devices OEMs like ZTE and Huawei make.

It gets interesting when you compare the Moto G to the ~$200 phones on the prepaid carriers like Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Cricket - if Motorola takes their CDMA variant beyond Verizon.

Virgin Mobile: HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy Victory
Boost Mobile: LG Optimus L7, Boost Warp 4G, LG Mach
Cricket: Samsung Galaxy Admire 2, HTC One SV, ZTE Source

 

[Scott7217]

Honestly I think the Nokia 521 is about the only thing that is close for the price. At least that's what I would've gone with for my parents if the G didn't come out. Don't really see much else for Android.

I did a quick search on Amazon, and it looks like they're selling the Nokia 521 on T-Mobile USA for around $80 right now. At that price, the Nokia 521 is easily an impulse buy. It wasn't too long ago that you could only get a feature phone (and not a full smartphone) at that price.

 

[Scott7217]

Competition on the big four will come from pre-paid phones like the LG Optimus F3, Nokia 520, Nokia 521, Nokia Lumia 710, Samsung Galaxy Express, Samsung Galaxy Legend, and the carrier-branded devices OEMs like ZTE and Huawei make.

It gets interesting when you compare the Moto G to the ~$200 phones on the prepaid carriers like Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Cricket - if Motorola takes their CDMA variant beyond Verizon.

Thanks for the list! That was very comprehensive! I have a feeling that Motorola could put the Moto G on every carrier in the US, and that will get regular people (not just tech fans) used to seeing the Motorola name again. We'll probably have a lot of people getting a Moto G as their first smartphone. If they like the experience, there will be a greater chance that they will choose another Motorola smartphone when they upgrade in the future.

Also, I've been thinking that parents could give the Moto G to their children as an alternative to the iPod Touch for playing games. You could probably operate the Moto G strictly on wifi, and a $200 Moto G is very competitive with a 16 GB iPod Touch in terms of price.

 

[doomtuba]

Honestly there really isn't good competition in the Android world. The biggest competition is coming from Nokia like others have said. Even though the 520's screen is only 800x480, like you said, it is almost half the cost and includes MicroSD, which is important to a lot of people. I'm interested to see how Nokia refreshes their 520/620/720 Lumias when WP8.1 comes out. I have a Moto G and a Lumia 1020 so I like to see both of them do well

 

[mrsmumbles]

There's the latest HTC Desire on Virgin Mobile. It looks very good but I have no experience of it.

Sent from my LG870 via Tapatalk 2

 

[Ry]

Thanks for the list! That was very comprehensive! I have a feeling that Motorola could put the Moto G on every carrier in the US, and that will get regular people (not just tech fans) used to seeing the Motorola name again. We'll probably have a lot of people getting a Moto G as their first smartphone. If they like the experience, there will be a greater chance that they will choose another Motorola smartphone when they upgrade in the future.

I doubt Motorola would put this on as a post-paid option for the big guys. It would have to automatically have to be the free phone. And the ETF would start at $350?! Ouch. It doesn't have LTE so that rules out Verizon post-paid.

Would love to see Best Buy and Fry's stock the US GSM model of this phone.

Also, I've been thinking that parents could give the Moto G to their children as an alternative to the iPod Touch for playing games. You could probably operate the Moto G strictly on wifi, and a $200 Moto G is very competitive with a 16 GB iPod Touch in terms of price.

I never understood taking a cellular device and using it as a Wi-Fi-only, iPod touch like device though. If games was my primary reason for a handheld device, I would have an iPod touch.

 

[ZingyTheRobot]

Clearly none of the posters here own a Moto G because none of the phones listed as potential competition to the Moto G come close in terms of spec vs price. To get this spec vs price on any other phone, you would have to pay much more, FACT!

BR

Zingy

 

[Ry]

Clearly none of the posters here own a Moto G because none of the phones listed as potential competition to the Moto G come close in terms of spec vs price. To get this spec vs price on any other phone, you would have to pay much more, FACT!

BR

Zingy

Uh. That's the point of listing those phones. People in this market are likely going to shop on price first. Everything from $50 to $250 off-contract/full-retail needs to be compared to the $180/$200 Moto G.

 

[thatguy97]

I think the omisiion of LTE isn't that big of a deal anyway unless you require 1080p video everywhere you go

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

 

[UJ95x]

I think the omisiion of LTE isn't that big of a deal anyway unless you require 1080p video everywhere you go

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

It doesn't have a 1080p display, so that's not why...

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thatguy97]

Well you get the point 3G is still moderaltly fast depending on your area

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

 

[UJ95x]

Well you get the point 3G is still moderaltly fast depending on your area

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

I thought it still had HSPA+

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Connervt]

HSPA+ is 3G.

 

[UJ95x]

HSPA+ is 3G.

HSPA is 3G, HSPA+ is 4G

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Ry]

Depends on AT&T and T-Mobile's definitions.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Connervt]

HSPA is 3G, HSPA+ is 4G

Posted via Android Central App

Sorry, but HSPA+ is a 3GPP technical standard. It is definitely 3G, regardless of how AT&T marketed it.

LTE wasn't even a fully 4G standard, until 3GPP decided to include it into 4G, being almost fast enough (and for it taking to long to reach the speeds they defined for 4G).

For those on Straight Talk/Net 10, we've just seen a carrier release 15.7, which the only change was to accurately display "3G" instead of "4G" on iPhones when in HSPA+. AT&T was overriding the 3G icon, so people wouldn't be upset seeing 3G on their phone.

HSPA+ Wiki
LTE Wiki
ST/Net10 Carrier Release 15.7 discussion

 

[UJ95x]

Sorry, but HSPA+ is a 3GPP technical standard. It is definitely 3G, regardless of how AT&T marketed it.

LTE wasn't even a fully 4G standard, until 3GPP decided to include it into 4G, being almost fast enough (and for it taking to long to reach the speeds they defined for 4G).

For those on Straight Talk/Net 10, we've just seen a carrier release 15.7, which the only change was to accurately display "3G" instead of "4G" on iPhones when in HSPA+. AT&T was overriding the 3G icon, so people wouldn't be upset seeing 3G on their phone.

HSPA+ Wiki
LTE Wiki
ST/Net10 Carrier Release 15.7 discussion

I'm not going by what the official definition is, I'm going by what the carriers market it as. HSPA+ is faster than HSPA either way

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Scott7217]

Uh. That's the point of listing those phones. People in this market are likely going to shop on price first. Everything from $50 to $250 off-contract/full-retail needs to be compared to the $180/$200 Moto G.

I would agree. We're talking about potential customers where even $20 makes a difference, so that's why Motorola is releasing a cheaper model at $180.