- Apr 21, 2009
- 4,506
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FWIW, this just hit the ol' tips box.
Take it for what it is, subject to change, be wrong, blah blah blah.
Take it for what it is, subject to change, be wrong, blah blah blah.
Nexus 5 on Virgin Mobile on Nov. 8?
- Thread starter Phil Nickinson
- Start date
greatgoogly
Well-known member
- Aug 9, 2011
- 202
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Priced at $499, I think a lot of people who were looking at it starting at $349 are going to be very disappointed when the real pricing of $449/499 (16/32GB) is revealed.
Its probably normal price off contract, Nexus 4 was the same way at t-mobile off contract. Google subsidizes the ones on the play store, or have in the past
stockandroidguy
Well-known member
- May 27, 2011
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Exactly what I thought since since Tmobile did the same thing with the N4. I think Google sells it almost at cost. I still predict 349/399 pricing. I have a feeling this pretty much confirms it (I Hope) *Holds Breath*
Leave it to Good Ol' Phil to keep us on our toes. Thanks!
If it's priced at 449/499, I'm not sure I will choose Nexus 5 over iPad Air because I cant afford both. 
If it's priced at 449/499, I'm not sure I will choose Nexus 5 over iPad Air because I cant afford both.
That price is off contract from Virgin. It'll be a lot cheaper on contract or through google.
I don't think people ever really realized that the Nexus 4 didn't actually retail for $299/$349, it retailed at typical flagship pricing. T-Mobile sold it unlocked for, what was it, $500 or $600? Definitely not cheap. This applied to every other official retailer that wasn't Google. The ONLY official retailer that priced the Nexus 4 at $299 was Google. The phone isn't really that cheap, Google simply subsidizes it, kind of like a carrier, except without any contract or other catches. That's how LG makes money out of the deal. I'd be shocked if Google actually paid only $300 for each Nexus 4. I'm actually wondering if Google really did still lose money with each Nexus 4 sold. It would certainly explain why Google never seemed to carry a huge stock of them; if you're still losing money even if you DO sell your entire stock, you sure as hell wouldn't want to overestimate the demand and end up with surplus.
I suspect the Nexus 5 will be a similar story. Google will be the only retailer to sell it at an absurdly cheap price.
I suspect the Nexus 5 will be a similar story. Google will be the only retailer to sell it at an absurdly cheap price.
Doesn't make sense for them to sell it at a loss, probably very low profit. The reason the carriers sell it for so much is because they know people who do buy it through them aren't aware of the Google Play cost.
Virgin Canada. The date of Nov 8th confirms an earlier report that the N5 will be released on Canadian carriers on Nov 8th.
Posted via Android Central App
Tom Westrick
Well-known member
- Apr 29, 2012
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Here's my theory: Google is betting that selling the Nexus devices at a cheap cost is good for their long term business model. Google isn't in this to make money giving free software to manufacturers, and they certainly aren't going to make money buying phones and selling them at a cheaper cost.
Google' business is information they can use for ad revenue, be it mapping data, music trends, etc. Look at how many apps Samsung includes that duplicates. Their own browser, chat client, email client, and even their own store (and now a Developer's conference to go along with all this). And Samsung DOMINATES Android. Any time someone uses Samsung browser, Chat-On, or even (shutters) S-Voice; vice Chrome, Hangouts and Google Now, Samsung gets that information rather than Google. And I know that us within these forums know better, but for the average consumer, they'll just use whatever was on the phone. A good friend of mine got the Galaxy S 4 this spring, and was using S-Voice until I showed her how to get to Google Now, and how much better it was (and I remapped her home key to make things even easier).
When Google controls both software and hardware, they can just release THEIR apps without worrying about the third party manufacturer putting their stuff on. While the carrier pricing is what it is, selling them for cheap(er) on the Play store leads more consumer to the product. Honestly, were it not for the Nexus pricing, I would have picked up a Note 3 or be looking into the One Max. I imagine the sales from the GPE HTC One and S4 still go to HTC and Samsung, with a cut going to Google for the cost of the pages. While Google may be eating some cost in the short run by selling the devices at a negative or break even margin, the information they get by people using their services will more than make up for the cost of the device. And if anyone has money to invest in the short term, it's Google.
This is all just an educated guess based on knowing about Google and knowing about different products. If it's true, awesome. If not, then I'd be interested to learn the true reason or logic.
eRod v1.0
Well-known member
- Apr 24, 2010
- 528
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Virgin Mobile Canada is owned by Bell and runs on the Bell network. I don't know if Bell uses the same bands as Sprint, but that's what Google's for.
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