Google has started selling a long-delayed budget smartphone boasting the same high-quality camera and several other features available in fancier Pixel models that cost hundreds of US dollars more.
The Pixel 4a unveiled on Monday is to be available on Aug. 20 after months of delay caused by supply problems triggered by the pandemic.
It costs US$349, a US$50 discount from a cheap Pixel released last year. It is also a major markdown from other higher-end models in the existing product lineup that start at US$799.
Photo: Google via AP
The next versions of Google’s top-of-the-line Pixel phones would be released sometime this fall, Google said, without revealing their prices.
“Last year, Pixel 3a gave people a chance to get the helpful features of Pixel at a more affordable price,” Google product management vice president Brian Rakowski said.
“This year, Pixel 4a and the first 5G-enabled Pixels, Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 coming this fall, will continue to bring the features people love packaged in sleek new hardware at more affordable prices,” he said.
The coming Pixel 4a synched to 5G networks still being built would start at US$499, and be available in Australia, Britain Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan and the US, Rakowski said.
The budget-minded Pixel 4a is coming out four months after Apple Inc released a discount iPhone, the SE, priced at US$399.
The low price helped spur iPhone sales at a time of soaring unemployment, as the US economy plunged into a deep recession that is causing millions of households to curb their spending so that they can pay rent and buy food.
The availability of a lower-priced model was one of the big reasons iPhone shipments during the April-to-June period climbed 11 percent from the same time, research firm Internal Data Corp (IDC) said.
That was in stark contrast to the overall smartphone market, which registered a 16 percent decline in shipments from last year during the same three months, the steepest drop in the industry’s history, IDC said.
It is doubtful that the Pixel 4a will reel in as many consumers as the iPhone SE, based on Google’s inability to make significant inroads as a device maker so far, despite generally positive reviews for the devices, especially their cameras.
Google so far has been selling fewer than 10 million Pixel phones a year since rolling out the product line in 2016, barely making a dent in a market where more than 1 billion phones are shipped annually, IDC said.
Additional reporting by AFP
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
SEMICONDUCTORS: Samsung and Texas Instruments would receive US$4.75 billion and US$1.6 billion respectively to build one chip factory in Utah and two in Texas Samsung Electronics Co and Texas Instruments Inc completed final agreements to get billions of US dollars of government support for new semiconductor plants in the US, cementing a major piece of US President Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act initiative. Under binding agreements unveiled Friday, Samsung would get as much as US$4.75 billion in funding, while Texas Instruments stands to receive US$1.6 billion — money that would help them build facilities in Texas and Utah. The final deals mean the chipmakers can begin collecting the funding when their projects hit certain benchmarks. Though the terms of Texas Instruments’ final agreement is
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
RSS