Google seems to have committed a pricey blunder in the price fixed for the new Pixel phones.
Best of the Breed
No doubt the Pixel phones are high-end smartphones and offer the perfect showcase of Google’s power in both hardware and software. The previous Nexus phones were targeted towards developers, whereas the new Pixel phones are focused on the consumer markets. Google seems to have reached the pinnacle and offered the ultimate mobile phones.
Pricey Blunder
However, though the company has obviously done a lot of hard work and produced the best of the breed Android phone, there is one factor that mars the entire endeavor. The price picked by Google might be a pricey blunder. The phones are surely competitive among the high-end phones available today, but they pose a heavy investment for buyers, who opt for a SIM free option without the carrier subsidy. Even consumers who opt for the contract phones will find the price on the heavy side.
Price Affects Perception
The price of a phone affects the way it is perceived among users. When a phone is expensive, consumers will perceive it as having a higher quality, offering more features and generally, more capable. For instance, if a HTC SIM free phone is available at $199 and another one at $399, many might pick the more expensive option, as it is perceived to have better specifications and performance.
Pixel Pricing
The 32 GB version of the Pixel phone comes at $649 and the 128 GB Pixel XL costs $849. This will create an expectation among consumers and offer them benchmarks for comparing the Pixel phones to other models. Comparing the price of the new Google phones with the competition shows that Google has made a pricey blunder.
The iPhone 7 comes at a price of $649 for its 32 GB model and the 128 GB model of the iPhone 7 Plus costs $849. By offering the same price, Google is literally making a statement that it is not better than Apple’s phones.
Apple Sets the Price
Apple seems to have become the arbiter for setting the upper price of smartphones and other manufacturers continue to look to Apple as a sort of price ceiling, beyond which they cannot venture.
Breaching Apple’s Price
Manufacturers seem to refuse to breach the price limits set for the iPhone. Sony has also been guilty of the same. The Xperia Z range offered specs and hardware that were better than the iPhone of the time. The Z range offered greater storage, a bigger camera and better expansions, waterproofing features, better resolution and so on. However, Sony undercut Apple’s price and attempted to sell its phones on their values rather than making more profit per phone. It ultimately ended up building a great brand name for Sony phones, going beyond the iPhone in many ways along with the price.
Pixel Phones On the Same Path
Pixel phones also seem to be going the Sony way. The two new Google phones have one of the best cameras, a battery that runs all day, a headphone jack included and so on. However, the pricing gives the perception that they are as good as the new iPhones and not better.