A nearly flagship phone at $300, the Nexus 4 was revolutionary. It had certain peculiarities, such as lack LTE support (though it wasn't as relevant in 2012), and storage was also constrained. We wanted to look at the trends in Google's phone lineup rather than just concentrating on one particular phone.
We discussed the cost of the Nexus 4, and now let's see what happened to the series' reputation as a "flagship killer." This series focuses on examining a recognisable characteristic of a specific brand or series, and we believe that software support is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Nexus and Pixel phones.
At first, and especially if you waited a few months, Nexus phones were reasonably priced. At one point, the Nexus 4 was only $200. Prices for the Nexus 5 were also reduced. The Nexus 6 followed, and many fans were dissatisfied with its $650 price tag. It was nonetheless a fantastic phone, and its approach to phones impacted Google's.
The Nexus line was divided into two versions the next year, in 2015. For consistency, we'll refer to these models as "base" and "pro." Additionally, it was the final model in the Nexus range before Google switched to the Pixel phones.
Over the years, those steadily got more expensive, reaching a pinnacle in 2018 and 2019 with the Pixel 3 and 4, which cost $800, and the Pixel 3 XL and 4 XL, which cost $900. Google then adjusted its strategy, and recently the cost of the tiny model has decreased, dropping to $600 with the Pixel 6. However, the Pixel 6 Pro is still $900.
It's interesting to note that the performance of the Pixel phones on the market was unaffected by the price increases. The exact opposite, in fact, as Google's 2019 shipments vastly outpaced those of earlier years. Although the figure below shows the total number of Pixel phones shipped, it is evident that Google is headed in the right direction. According to reports, the business set high production goals for the Pixel 6 series, aiming to make 7 million units—more than any other series. We don't exactly know how well the 6-series did, though, because Google isn't one to discuss sales (we'll have to wait for analysts to figure it out).
We haven't discussed the "Pixel a" series, whose major objective is to provide a Google phone on the cheap, so we will return to price in a moment. What would you be willing to pay for the rumoured Google software support? How effective is such support, in fact?
We attempted to illustrate that with a chart. The red line displays the number of years that an OS upgrade was available for a certain generation of smartphones (including minor ones). The period for which security fixes were released is represented by the blue line.
Google typically provides three years' worth of OS updates. The Nexus 6 stands out, but that was actually a late update that was an older version of Android 7.1.1 that broke Android Pay, and it took Google some time to figure out a workaround (meanwhile users were downgraded to 7.0).
Another notable generation is the Pixel 3, which received four years' worth of security updates as opposed to the initial three. In actuality, the two 2018 phones' final update was released at the end of June this year (Android 12 arrived last year).
The Pixel 4, 5, and 6 series presently run Android 12. In October of this year, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will receive their final assured OS update.
Google slightly altered the approach with the Pixel 6 generation. When compared to rivals Apple and Samsung, it still only commits to 3 years of OS updates, but 5 years of security fixes. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro will receive their final guaranteed OS update in October 2024 and their final guaranteed security patch in October 2026, according to the Help centre. "Guaranteed" because there are occasional exceptions, as you witnessed with the Pixel 3.
Let's take a short look at the Pixel A phones before we finish. The Pixel 3a and 4a are categorised as relatively small phones, whereas the Pixel 3a XL, 4a 5G, and 5a are categorised as larger smartphones (with 5G in the latest iterations). As you can see, the price points for the first group and the second are roughly $400 and $500, respectively.
The "a" phones receive three years of OS upgrades and three years of security patches, thus we haven't plotted software support on a chart because it would have made for a boring chart.
Google has not yet made many details on the Pixel 7 series, which will launch later this year. However, based on earlier models, we can estimate that the phones will most likely receive 3 years of OS updates and 5 years of security patches. Additionally, it wouldn't surprise us if Google kept the starting rates where they are.
