Pixel 4 doesn't come with 5G. Should we even care? (The Daily Charge, 10/16/2019)

Today on The Daily Charge. More on Google, we're looking at the Pixel Book Go, the depth of Google VR and the lack of 5G on the pixel 4. [MUSIC] Welcome to the Daily Charge Wednesday. October 16th, I'm Robert Chang and with me are Scott Stein and Jessica [UNKNOWN]. We're still recapping Made by Google. [MUSIC] Now we couldn't fit everything Google Now into yesterday's show so we're doubling down, and fortunately both of you were at the show yesterday First off, we want to talk about pixel for one of the key features missing, at least for me is 5g because I'm obsessed about 5g. Now, that wasn't necessarily surprised, but there were some reports that if it was popping up, just how big of a deal is it that 5g wasn't even mentioned because of that. I think in terms of practicality, it's not a huge deal. We are actually you and I actually Suggest to people to hold off in buying a 5G phone. This isn't the right time. I think it's gonna be a different story a year from now where every phone that matters will have at least a 5G variant, and not come out only in 5G. And that's because the networks are still growing The chips are still being involved, and the designs are too. The cost of getting a 5G phone is gonna be really hard, because you're paying for expensive hardware. And the network just doesn't available yet. So if there is going to be a search [UNKNOWN] that's gonna be expensive too. So I would say, when it comes to practicality for 2019 5G isn't important. Yeah, and- For 2020, that might be a different story. Yeah it is noteworthy that Apple and Google are really the only companies right now not talking about 5G, everyone else is like 5G, 5G, 5G. One of the other aspects I wrote about yesterday is the fact that Verizon isn't The exclusive partner for the pixel anymore, this thing will be out every major US carrier. How big of a deal is that? Guess that is a huge deal. One of the biggest, I think things that hurt the pixel three last year in terms of sales, and Google even acknowledged that sales were not great .>> Yeah. Was the fact that People thought that the pixel 3 was only available through Verizon when in fact, you could also buy it through Google site,that just wasn't communicated well. It's crystal clear from the pixel 3a \g from the pixel 4 now,that you can walk into any carrier store which we know is where the vast majority of people buy their phones and be able to pick it up and look at it alongside another country. Competitor device. For sure, and the [UNKNOWN] definitely did extremely well, doubling sales in the second quarter. And [UNKNOWN] It sounds like that wasn't hard, to be honest. [UNKNOWN] basically called out the fact that that extra distribution helped a lot. All right, moving on to another product announce, the Pixelbook Go. It's a bit pricy at $649. Scott, you had some hands-on time with it. Yeah. What'd you think? So I mean, it's a Chromebook. It's a very nice Chromebook. And it kind of feels much more like a laptop. That's not new in the world of Chromebooks. And so what Google's trying to do here is kind of strange between a And a little bit of backtracking because the Pixel Book that came out in 2017 was the super premium Chromebook. And it's great, but it was, like, $1,000 range. And then they tried to move into tablet territory, and they've been moving into that last year with the Pixel Slate, which was the Chrome tablet. But they've completely pulled back from that, and from tablets as a whole, For Google. And so now, the Pixelbook Go is trying to be a more affordable Pixelbook, without the tablet. But it's not more affordable than most of the Chromebooks that you would get in any store. Which is more like the 2 or $300 range, right? 2 or $300, yeah, and that's what most people are used to paying for these. I think Google's always in the position of trying to further the premium element, and the To push into the laptop zone of Chromebooks. And I think Chromebooks are great. Mm-hm. But there's a point of which how much would you pay. Right. And they're staying out of that competition with OEMs for the $300. All right, amd lastly, Daydream, Google's phone VR headset, which was supposed to be their way of jumpstarting the whole category, is officially dead. So, what happened? Requiem for the Daydream. [LAUGH] There we go, there with that headline I was gonna use. So Daydream, it's like the death of mobile phone VR at this point. Between this, and Samsung Gear VR, which Oculus gave the eulogy to at the developer conference. And the Samsung never talks about. Samsung never talked about it. Right. They just kinda let it die without talking about it. But Google has admitted the Daydream is you will still get apps but it not supported on the phones and they're not going to sell the headset anymore. That's after back at Google iO. Google [UNKNOWN] said that they're not currently pursuing any Oculus quest like future standalone VR stuff right now. And I think what we're looking at is, sure, maybe you could say VR is dead. But it's not dead. It's still around. But the idea of it for the average consumer as a hook. Mm-hm. Is dead. Right. The idea of it to sell a phone is dead. And we're looking at things like computer vision, AR, things that you could move through space, which is like the hand tracking or. What AR does and those headsets didn't do any of that so, I think that it's also hard to keep having every phone work in these new adapters, Yes, And it just wasn't moving people weren't interested in wasn't selling units. I think I have like four or five of these like vr headsets in my closet collecting dust right now. I have a new headline for you by the way, Yeah, Google is no longer a daydream believer That could be like- Ooh. Maybe that's the deck. [LAUGH] It's the social that's really the science- [CROSSTALK] That is a good snappy deck there actually. [CROSSTALK] I like that though, that's, okay- [CROSSTALK] This is how the sauceage is made. [LAUGH] But it's sad cuz there were some really cool experiences but that's it. Yes, for the Daily Charge I'm Roger Chang, this is Scott Stein and Jessica Dolcourt. Thanks for joining us. [MUSIC]