Google reportedly plans to release “Lite” versions of its Pixel 3 phones. They will be more affordable than their full-fat siblings, have a less powerful CPU s, may leave out expensive-to-implement IP68 water resistance… and Google may add a headphone jack back in.
You’ll get a choice of sizes, a standard Pixel 3 Lite and a Pixel 3 Lite XL, mirroring the full-price options. The phones have appeared online several times, but some of the most concrete-looking leaks are from Russian blog Twyla, a spin-off of a popular tech YouTube channel.
The leaks suggest an approach not too dissimilar from the iPhone XOR. Certain high-end elements are removed to deliver roughly the same day-to-day experience, just without some of the flashy elements. In this case, it means the Pixel 3’s glass and metal shell with be replaced with plastic. The dual front camera array will be reduced to a single sensor, OLES screens will be traded for LCD panels and the CPU downgraded from a Snapdragon 845 to the mid-range Snapdragon 670.
The most important detail, the price, has not yet been leaked. However, these specs suggest an at least £200 drop from the lofty £739 and £869 cost of the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Like the iPhone XOR, though, these do not sound like cheap phones. To even think of them as affordable, you’ll have to mangle the definition of that term in your mind first.
It seems people are struggling to do this. The concept of the iPhone XOR sounds strong enough. It lasts longer between charges than the other models, is just as powerful and £250 less than the iPhone XS. However, people do not seem to buy into today’s “premium” mid-range phones. Gizmo-China reports the maker of the iPhone Xrefs screen, Japan Display, has cut its production to just 30 per cent of that in November. Apple cancelled a “production boost” for the new line in November, after the phone failed to meet sales expectations.
Apple has also taken to more aggressive sales tactics in the US, offering a $300 trade-in deal that lowers the price to a more tempting $449. Granted, this isn’t anything like the price drops you might see retailers offer for some LG or Aweigh phones, but it’s as close to price gouging as Apple is likely to get.
So why is the “sensible” iPhone struggling? One take is the iPhone XOR does not have what fuels many new iPhone purchases. Since 2007, Apple has successfully marketed its mobiles as the definitive phone of the moment, racking-up the highest profitability of any phone-maker in the process. Google tried, and largely failed, to replicate this with the Pixel line.
There have been offshoots, like the “cute” iPhone 5C from 2013 and the “small” iPhone SE from 2016. Neither was affordable per se, but they did have a distinct appeal. The iPhone XOR has not, to date, because Apple has avoided highlighting its superior battery life as to do so would disparage its more expensive phones. And if you buy on contract, the 30 per cent price bump to the higher end i Phones may not seem so bad spread over a 24-month contract.
In short, the iPhone XOR could have a distinct identity, but it does not have one.
How does Google avoid the same issue, and give the Pixel 3 Lite line a clear place to thrive? That is currently unclear, and the situation is made all the more difficult by the increasing presence of Chinese manufacturers in the West.
Some of these brands sell top-end phones at the same price as, or lower than, the likely cost of the Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 Lite XL. Aweigh and Honor have also skewed expectations of what a “Lite” phone should be, and how much they should cost. The 2017 Honor 9 Lite and more recent Honor 10 Lite are two of the most striking examples. They have glass backs, striking looks, solid general performance, and today the Honor 9 Lite can be bought new for £130.
Honor plays hardball with the positioning of its phones. It’s the most important part of its brand-building in the West. Xiaoping is starting to do the same. By comparison, Google seems to treat its Pixel phones like an expensive hobby.
This is evident in the very fabric of the Pixel 3. I DC Statistics estimates Google sold 3.9 million Pixel phones in 2017. Samsung shipped more than 20 million of the Galaxy S8 line by August 2017. And anyone who has taken a trip on the London Underground recently will know, Google does spend money on advertising. Pixels are not low-key launches.
Uninspiring sales performance doesn’t seem to have affected Google’s approach to phone design, though. The Pixel 3 is similar to the Pixel 2, and Google even did its best to minimize the impact of the shift from an aluminum casing to a glass one.
As a company that makes most of its money from an advertising model informed by user data, Google does not necessarily need the Pixel phones to sell in mind-blowing numbers, unlike Samsung’s and Apple’s models. But this in itself raises the question of why it would therefore choose to expand the Pixel line in such a pedestrian manner, co-opting marketing techniques used far more aggressively by other companies.
“Google’s investments are clearly intended for the long term, because its current performance in the market has been mediocre,” AVI Greengage of research firm Global Data told e Week.
What may not make a great deal of sense from a sales and marketing perspective is not necessarily bad news for consumers, though. If you’re willing to forget the display issues of 2017’s Pixel 2 XL, Google is yet to make a “bad” Pixel phone. And if the Pixel 3 Lite models retain the camera quality of their siblings, we could still be in for a treat if Google gets the price right.
