LG & Google Partnership in Meeting Between CEOs; More LG Nexus Devices Confirmed

[dgstorm]

It looks like the business relationship between Google and LG is being strengthened. Larry Page met with LG Electronics CEO Koo Bon-joon in Seoul last week. Supposedly, they discussed the future relationship between the two companies and worked out ways to improve their bond. They also supposedly discussed future LG Nexus devices, which indirectly confirms we will see more of them in the future.

It also appears that LG wants to commit more fully to a Google ecosystem, and wants to dive into other Google products like Google TV and Google Glass. Specifically LG intends to implement Google TV directly into their next-gen OLED displays. Apparently, LG has been doing a remarkable job at staying competitive and are now firmly in third place world-wide in mobile behind Apple and Samsung. Besides the LG-made Nexus 4 devices selling well, the manufacturer has also done well internationally selling the LG Optimus G and Optimus G Pro.

It's good to see LG making strides to close the gap on Samsung and Apple. It would be a shame if the mobile manufacturing world degraded to a duopoly like the U.S. almost has in the carrier world with Verizon and AT&T.

Source: KoreaTimes

 

[sNuFfYStiGLiTZ]

No more glass backs, 32gb as base model, a bigger battery, with expandable storage, and this partnership will be invincible....

 

[jspradling7]

The battery will be under-sized with 8gb of usable memory, and no SD slot. But it will have a screen with a dpi so dense that your eye can't tell the difference between it and a screen with half that many pixels. I'm afraid the GNex will be my one and only Nexus phone.

 

[52brandon]

good for LG. They were really on the brink of losing much of the smartphone market before the Nexus 4 and it's relatives. They got a lot of respect back there, now they can keep it moving forward

 

[Hugh Jass]

Sounds good, I've always liked LG's devices, my LG Dare was a fantastic phone and took better pictures than today's most expensive smartphones.

The battery will be under-sized with 8gb of usable memory, and no SD slot. But it will have a screen with a dpi so dense that your eye can't tell the difference between it and a screen with half that many pixels. I'm afraid the GNex will be my one and only Nexus phone.

Well than you for that bowl of sunshine, Lt. Dan.

 

[jspradling7]

Well than you for that bowl of sunshine, Lt. Dan.

Sorry. I shouldn't be so negative.:biggrin:

But Google seems to want the Nexus devices to follow a template that I don't understand. With all the tech being put into these phones why is shoving 64gb of internal memory in them seem impossible?

 

[Hugh Jass]

Sorry. I shouldn't be so negative.:biggrin:

But Google seems to want the Nexus devices to follow a template that I don't understand. With all the tech being put into these phones why is shoving 64gb of internal memory in them seem impossible?

I answered this recently elsewhere:


http://www.droidforums.net/forum/an...lte-lg-nexus-4-android-5-0-a.html#post2415887

 

[boidsonly]

I was extremely disappointed to learn the LG OGpro was being anchored to ATT. I had fully intended to buy it and wait for the Nexus 5 (or whatever it will be called). What a let down....

 

[jspradling7]

I answered this recently elsewhere:


http://www.droidforums.net/forum/an...lte-lg-nexus-4-android-5-0-a.html#post2415887

I see your point but... 32gb chips bought by the millions cost 100 bucks? My Galaxy Nexus has one... we're off topic.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I see your point but... 32gb chips bought by the millions cost 100 bucks? My Galaxy Nexus has one... we're off topic.

Internal phone memory is expensive, just compare devices on a single platform that offers different memory size options and it'll show you that it's expensive as much as you scale it.

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

Never been a fan of LG devices. This is bad news in my book.

 

[52brandon]

Internal phone memory is expensive, just compare devices on a single platform that offers different memory size options and it'll show you that it's expensive as much as you scale it.

just because people pay such a large difference for the difference in memory, doesn't mean it costs mfrs anywhere near that.
For example, here is a breakdown of the Galaxy S4 costs to MFR: Samsung Galaxy S4 Smartphone Costs $244 to Manufacture - X-bit labs
$28 for 16GB memory as well as the 2GB DDR3 chip. So it's a pretty safe bet that it costs less than $20 for the actual memory, probably more like $10 considering the DDR3 mobile RAM is very new, therefore likely more expensive to MFR

 

[kodiak799]

just because people pay such a large difference for the difference in memory, doesn't mean it costs mfrs anywhere near that.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if 64gig internal memory costs even $30-$40. Not that $20 or so per phone is anything to sneeze at as far as margins are concerned.

Google doesn't push memory because they want your information in the cloud, where they can mine it and market it.

Anyway, I've yet to see a phone in the past few years that had "the best" across the board. It doesn't happen because they need a certain margin without going over a specific price point (i.e. $300 subsidized price). They are probably correct if they came out with a phone at $350 or $400 it won't sell very well. Google, especially, wants a price point to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Sure $20 sounds cheap, it's $20...but $20 is the difference between this years hottest CPU and last years junk in today's phone, and if you think you'd produce a device that has last years CPU to make room for your expanded memory and could still sell a device to spec demanding geeks across the world your nuts, it would flop before a name could be picked. If it were cheap and efficient to provide more and more memory, then there'd be a storage war between OEM's on who has the most space. Clearly that doesn't exist, their is no war, because aside from the 1% no one demands it. I certainly don't. I have 288MB used and 7.7GB free on my Bionic internal storage in use...I use no apps to SD, have a dozen or more games and as many other apps I never use. My application storage isn't even a full GB out of the 4GB available.

Christ I don't even use half of the Droid 1's internal storage.

But that isn't the true point, because the Google initiative on this project is a budget phone with very competitive specs for less than half of the price, and to do that they make no profit on the device as it is, actually they probably take a margin cut just to keep it affordable to the every day guy who still wants a kick ass phone.

By the way:

While there's no doubt that the extra storage will come in useful to those who find 64GB restrictive, Apple is making buyers pay over the odds for the capacity. At current NAND prices, 128GB costs approximately $80, but Apple charges a whopping $300 compared to the base 16GB model, which means an additional $220 in revenue per sale.

128GB iPad now on sale: Will professionals bite? | ZDNet

Yep, lots of competition driving those prices.

 

[52brandon]

Sure $20 sounds cheap, it's $20...but $20 is the difference between this years hottest CPU and last years junk in today's phone, and if you think you'd produce a device that has last years CPU to make room for your expanded memory and could still sell a device to spec demanding geeks across the world your nuts

that wasn't my point. My point was that they could MFR the phone with higher memory and even if they were to mark up the cost on the memory, to say $50, they still make a higher profit AND sell more devices to people that want more space. I'm perfectly fine with the smaller space. With the inclusion of Play Music, Picasa, Dropbox and similar cloud programs, I don't come NEAR using all the space in my GNEX. Logically though, it just makes better sense to offer an option that a decent bit of consumers ask for. I will be getting a GS4 soon and although it has a micro SD slot, I doubt I'll even need the full 16GB of onboard memory... but that's just me. Their inclusion of the slot however, eliminates the need to make different versions. Anybody wanting more space can add it themselves. But on Nexus devices, which don't come with micro SD slots, the option of higher capacity for a smaller markup than the typical $100 (a 400% markup assuming the $20 estimate is accurate) will only help them to sell more phones. IMO of course