Google unveils bargain Pixel phone as pandemic curbs spending
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 dollars more.
The Pixel 4a, unveiled on Monday, will be available on August 20 after months of delay caused by supply problems triggered by the pandemic.
It will cost US$349, a US$50 discount from a cheap Pixel released last year. It’s also a major markdown from other higher-end models in the existing product line-up that start at US$799. The next versions of Google’s top-of-the-line Pixel phones will be released sometime this fall, Google said, without revealing their prices.
The budget-minded Pixel 4a is coming out four months after Apple 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 economy plunged into a deep recession that is causing millions of households to curb their spending so they can pay rent and buy food.
The availability of a lower-priced model was one of the big reasons Apple’s iPhone shipments during the April-June period climbed 11 per cent from the same time, according to research firm Internal Data Corp, IDC. That was in stark contrast to the overall smartphone market, which registered a 16 per cent decline in shipments from last year during the same three months, the steepest drop in the industry’s history, IDC said. Apple CEO Tim Cook also cited the iPhone
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The new Galaxy phone is expected to cost around US$1,000.