Google has a consumer loyalty problem with their Pixel phones | Hacker News Reader

Google has a consumer loyalty problem with their Pixel phones

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15 pointscarlycue20 comments

No joke, I lost mine in the woods, and it was inside of a faraday bag. I went to my cell phone company, got a new phone and a new sim that same day. I also went to Google and did an erase of the Pixel.

The next day, I went back to the woods and found my Pixel, still inside the faraday bag. The erase order hadn't gotten to the phone. It still hasn't. That's right: to this day, I've kept the phone in that bag, waiting and praying for some way to reverse the wipe command I gave to Google. One day, Google will enable me to reverse that wipe order, I have faith.

this is the funniest thing I've read today. You could get a EMI blocking blanket from amazon, wrap it around your head and open your phone to copy the data. Or drive further into the woods where there is no signal to copy the data.

Then simply let it erase itself and reinitialize it from backup.

Thank you! It's definitely evidence that the universe has a sense of humor.

I like the idea of going into the woods -- how do I get ALL the data off the phone in a human-readable manner that's accessible to someone like me -- not a sophisticated computer nerd, but someone who dabbles in python, can do rudimentary stuff with the command line, and would be lost without Windows? I can obviously grab the photos. But can I recover anything else? The filetypes will all make the data sticky to the apps, wouldnt it?

A laptop with adb backup. Try searching for or putting into chatgpt "adb backup how to backup and restore my phone". Try it out on your new phone first. Essentially after installing adb, you'll need to enable a debug option on your phone first, plug it in, allow the adb command to access it, then run backup. It could take a while so make sure your laptop is fully charged.

If the battery is flat, take the SIM out? Plug out your WiFi before you turn it on?

I used to be a big fan, but they lost me when they stopped letting me access my data. On Google ROMs apps can store data that the user can't access. It is fucked up. This is my device and my data. So I switched to LineageOS as they respect my autonomy.

I'd bet if they reintroduced SD Card storage the loyalty numbers would increase.

Doesn't seem to be an issue for loyalty to iPhones. Ergo, I'd say that likely isn't what the problem is.

However, if you could get iOS on hardware from different manufacturers, loyalty to Apple for hardware would inevitably be lessened. If that was the case, I would consider an iOS device in some capacity.

Poor analysis of the market. iOS is unique to Apple and includes iMessage... iPhone is a status symbol. Tons of people are committed to Apple and aren't changing no matter what.

Poor understanding of my comment.

> However, if you could get iOS on hardware from different manufacturers, loyalty to Apple for hardware would inevitably be lessened

The word "if" is doing a lot of heavy-lifting in this sentence because we both know that isn't the case and isn't happening (though the usage of Hackintosh supports this idea), but the counterpoint is that this is exactly the case with Android, ergo, you will see less loyalty if your apps and data carries on without fuss, regardless of which manufacturer you choose for your next device.

People switching away from Apple isn't the topic at hand, why people don't stick with the Pixel in terms of "loyalty" is. The bigger picture is that they're likely still "loyal" to Android as that's what they're invested in when it comes to apps purchased, accessories et al.

Anecdote: I use a Pixel. I don't give a shit what manufacturer makes my next device and seldom stick to one brand, but I will be sticking to Android for the foreseeable just to avoid being subjected to the whims of a single manufacturer, which has felt bad in the past when I was an Apple user.

Brand loyalty is for suckers because it eschews objectivity.

Is brand loyalty the same as vendor lock-in if the end result is the same?

You mean the 3.5mm headphone jack?

I wanted to consider GrapheneOS, but I’m not sending my perfectly capable, lithium-battery-less, doesn’t-need-firmeware-update IEMs to convert to earbuds Google happens to sell branded and bundled to replace the port they dropped (just one model after teasing competing brands with their 5a).

It doesn't prevent Samsung from having loyal customers. It doesn't help Sony to gain market share.

Sony, unfortunately, has no partnerships with any carriers, no place to go to repair a phone, no marketing on the US, all making it nearly impossible to sell any phones. Their pricing strategy is quite bizarre as well.

Samsung is the dominant Android player, for a variety of reasons. Pixel and OnePlus (and Samsung and Apple) make a lot of extra money by charging $100/$200 to boost from 128gb to 256 or 512 but that strategy doesn't differentiate them and definitely doesn't make Samsung loyalists switch.

You cannot state that adding an SD slot wouldn't improve market share, because there are no premium competitors who do, the hypothesis is untested.

I have a Pixel 4xl with the common battery ribbon connector problem. Google replaced the battery once within the first year, and then again a year later. Then, a year later the problem came back. I went to the same store, and was told Google would not fix the battery again.. that after 2 times it's a motherboard problem and that isn't under extended warranty like the battery.

So I went on Amazon, bought a new battery for $18 including tools, and installed it as a first timer in 20 minutes. Works great.

Not every consumer is able to do that. So Google just burns them.

I should add, not being as flippant and careless as ubreakifix and google, I actually looked at how I could mitigate the problem from happening again.

The tiny plastic clip that attaches to the motherboard is brittle and breaks when the ribbon pulls on it as the phone flexs and moves around.

So I used some of the sticky tape provided to hold the battery down, to hold down the connector. So now when the ribbon pulls on the head of the connector, it has to overcome the tape before it can flex the connector and crack it. 9 months later no failure yet so it's too early to know, but I'd bet good money that adding a viscous gluey tape over a connector that was breaking due to flexing around would help keep it together longer. Why couldn't Google do that the first two times they wasted money installing a new battery?

I stopped buying Google Pixel when my Pixel XL randomly stopped working... something to do with the flash chip. Google said basically "Oh, well, buy a new one".

The Pixel business has failed

Forget about challenging Apple...the Pixel line barely competes with Samsung. There is no way this is a win for Google, and its long past time they gave it up.

Quality and software issues (from Google!) plague these phones. Even now, there is a trending story of an update that is causing phones to get hot...and this is from Google who controls the software, hardware, deployment...

And then there is the pure junk like the Pixel Watch and the upcoming tablet...inferior products that should never have been brought to market. Were even 100k Pixel Watches sold?

I was loyal until my Pixel 3 swelled to the point I was concerned it would catch fire

After that, back to Samsung...no problems since

Even if the Pixel phones were great products...they don't sell in volume. Time for Google to accept that Samsung runs the Android market.

I thought the best use of a Google phone line was as a baseline reference device. The Nexus 5 is a great example. It had good specs (size/weight, screen, speed) and importantly price without any bloat.

That saying about premature scaling "You're not Google." seems to apply to design execution as well "Google, you're not Apple."

Has it? The latest generation is their best selling generation.

Been using pixel 4a since two years. Not a single issue. One of the best phones I've ever owned and cheap too!

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