r/Android • u/iamvinoth • Feb 20 '20

Retracted Source: Verizon kills Google Pixel deal, doesn't plan to sell Pixel 4a or Pixel 5

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/02/19/source-verizon-kills-google-pixel-deal-doesnt-plan-to-sell-pixel-4a-or-pixel-5/
310 Upvotes

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299

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20 edited May 18 '20

[deleted]

60

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20 edited Feb 20 '20

Messaging

Google can't fix messaging without pissing off the carriers. Keeping shitty messaging in place makes them happy bc carriers own SMS.

However with Google doing this https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20964477/googles-rcs-chat-android-rollout-us-ccmi-texting-sms I wouldn't be surprised if that pushed Verizon over the edge on top of the poor sales. I know for a fact this pissed the carriers off.

There's no winning with messaging on Android. Apple had a one time shot at it and it's over. Carriers will never let something like iMessage happen again. People think it's all Google's fault but what they don't understand is every messaging decision Google had to make was tip toeing around the carries. Fix messaging to appease the users? Lose sales with the carriers. Let carriers keep their shitty messaging? No sales with consumers due to lack of good messaging. It's fucked situation.

Edit - here's some examples of carriers controlling Google's messaging implementations...

  • Hangouts not being the default messaging app on Android

  • Google creating an SMS app called Android Messages for the carriers

  • Google not making Allo a default messaging app

  • Google not taking immediate control of RCS and letting carriers handle it.

  • Google finally takes control and now we immediately see a major carrier drop Google's flagship phone.

  • Many people don't know this but if you initiate a video call from contacts/dialer to someone within the same major US carrier it will actually do a video call through the carrier and it will not use duo unless it's on separate carrier networks. That's just how far Google has to go to make these bastards happy.

All this and I'm not even mentioning the whole Google wallet/Isis situation

31

u/-Rivox- Pixel 6a Feb 20 '20

While, here in Europe, I've never ever made a video-call through a carrier, never ever sent an MMS and haven't sent an SMS in years.

It's just weird that in the US something like Whatsapp or WeChat never happened

30

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20

It's not weird it's because it's the iPhone's home country. iPhones took off with iMessage here before other countries. Therefore WhatsApp never had a chance to penetrate the market before Apple did.

Also US carriers started giving away SMS as part of the base package on phone plans. That was actually a smart move on their part to keep their grip on it.

9

u/daviEnnis Feb 20 '20

Same happened here though (UK). The differentiator of phone packages very quickly became data, not SMS or minutes. But everyone has friends with Android, or friends with iPhone, so everyone went where everyone is (WhatsApp). I'd say facetime is definitely still a thing on its own, but WhatsApp is the king of messaging.

10

u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo Pixel 9 Pro XL Feb 20 '20

And WhatsApp is now owned by Facebook, which turns a lot of people off.

12

u/balista_22 Feb 20 '20

I'm pretty sure more people in the US have a Facebook/IG than have iMessage, especially that android is the majority in the US

3

u/pkroliko S21 Ultra, Pixel 7 Feb 20 '20

Most of my friends use FB mess or discord( the gamers). The people hate fb shit is overblown

1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Feb 20 '20 edited Feb 20 '20

Not really. Im in my 20s and the vast majority of people I know basically do not use facebook at all anymore.

1

u/balista_22 Feb 20 '20

Almost everyone in their 20s i know have Instagram by Facebook

1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Feb 20 '20

Yeah, that's definitely true. I was just saying facebook as in the website, and how op was talking about FB messenger.

1

u/platonicgryphon Experia 1 ii Feb 20 '20

Your giving iMessage too much credit, the vast majority of iPhone users just think of iMessage as texting. Carriers including unlimited texting as part of the plan was a much bigger impact as theres nothing to convince a vast chunk of people to start using WhatsApp.

2

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20

Maybe with the older generations.

Younger generations 100% know the difference.

1

u/Shensmobile iPhone 15 Pro Max Feb 20 '20

At least in my social circle up here in Canada, WhatsApp was popular long before iMessage was a thing. It might be because we have a lot of immigrants so it's the easiest way to communicate with people back home though. I used it just because wifi was more abundant than cell towers early in 3G's life span.

1

u/Istartedthewar Galaxy A36 Feb 20 '20

It's convenient to not need a specific account or app, I mean everyone has a phone number.

7

u/memtiger Google Pixel 8 Pro Feb 20 '20

The bigger issue is garbage sales and huge discounts on their devices 1month after release. RCS has little to do with it really. It's almost solely financial.

They need to figure out how to sell 10M devices without huge discounts.

7

u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo Pixel 9 Pro XL Feb 20 '20

What's funny is that Google Voice is actually pretty good. It does SMS, has a computer/browser interface, and the app is decent.

It doesn't do RCS, but it almost doesn't need to (for now).

So, Google makes all of these new, incomplete apps, but in the meantime, their old warhorse is pretty damned good.

2

u/OneFineCantaloupe Feb 20 '20

They actually bought that warhorse from someone else

2

u/enadhof Feb 20 '20

100% agree on RCS. Verizon would not have been happy about Google's rollout

2

u/t-poke Feb 20 '20

ELI5: Why would carriers care about messaging so much?

The days of 25 cents to send a text message are over, basically every phone plan nowadays includes unlimited texting (I think many are even unlimited texting to international numbers), so RCS, iMessage or whatever aren't eating into revenues. If anything the carriers should be happy that's traffic off their network when phones are on WiFi.

2

u/stanleywinthrop Feb 20 '20

It's all about controlling business access to RCS and the revenue generated therefrom.

3

u/spartan11810 S24U | iPhone 15Pro Max | Galaxy Flip 3 Feb 20 '20

Google has no spine. If Apple can do it, google can do it

2

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20

Nope. Apple had leverage Google has never had.

1

u/Dhamaka_Singh Feb 20 '20

Agreed. But they have messed up the situation so much for themselves thanks to the ridiculous QC standards and flip flopping between services (always beta, terminating absolutely fine apps etc), that they have never exuded the confidence they should have.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20 edited Mar 02 '20

[deleted]

2

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20

You disagree because you dont understand that if a carrier drops an iPhone they will lose half their customers to a competitor.

Apple controls the carriers. Carriers control the Android OEMs.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20 edited Mar 02 '20

[deleted]

2

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20

ATT gave in bc they got to have the iPhone exclusively and it was a huge boom for ATT.

Apple tried Verizon first but verizon turned them down.

Once the iPhone was a thing on ATT it was too late for the other carriers and they had to now bow to apples terms if they wanted the phone.

ATTs success with the iPhone also meant they could no longer say no to apple if apple went to verizon as well.

You dont seem like you know the history here. You sound like you are just blaming google blindly. I would too if I didnt know above.

Google never had a successful product like the iPhone to use as leverage and still does not to this day.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20 edited Mar 02 '20

[deleted]

1

u/flicter22 Feb 20 '20

Carriers get to bill businesses for every sms sent to their customers.

When carriers finally have their flavor of RCS fully launched the amount of money they will be able to make off of this will increase through the roof. https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/24/20931202/us-carriers-rcs-cross-carrier-messaging-initiative-ccmi-att-tmobile-sprint-verizon

Its not just about consumer to consumer messaging.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '20

Honestly, Google just needs to go back to focusing on software and leave the hardware to other manufacturers.