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How is this remotely competitive in a world full of $179 Moto G's? $219 Moto G LTE's? Or even a $350 Nexus? This seems like a phone from two or three years ago

How is this remotely competitive in a world full of $179 Moto G's? $219 Moto G LTE's? Or even a $350 Nexus? This seems like a phone from two or three years ago where $650 for a non-premium brand would have been passable. I just bought a Moto G LTE for my wife and its a wonderful phone. I don't see what Amazon would bring to the table for an extra $420. That's almost 10 months of service right there.

JohnTHaller 12y ago
I don't think it is. Except for people who buy on-contract and don't know better about the pricing and features compared to other phones. Heck, you're even stuck with Amazon's Silk browser... there's no Firefox or Chrome in the Amazon App Store... so most users can forget about syncing this with anything.
- opendais 12y ago
  Aka the MitM browser. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fires-silk-browser-sounds-privacy-alarm-bells/ http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fir...
  - jonknee 12y ago
    Or you can uncheck the "Accelerate page loading" checkbox.
    - opendais 12y ago
      How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? I can tell you from experience 0 of the ones I've encountered outside the IT/Startup space were aware of that is what it does.
      - kevincrane 12y ago
        > How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? Probably around the same number who care that their traffic is going through Amazon first.
        opendais 12y ago
        I bet if you went and talked to people if they were comfortable with all of their online banking being routed through Amazon...I suspect most would say No. Just a guess. If you put it in terms they understand, they care.
        gohrt 12y ago
        Amazon says HTTPS is not intercepted https://www.eff.org/2011/october/amazon-fire%E2%80%99s-new-browser-puts-spotlight-privacy-trade-offs https://www.eff.org/2011/october/amazon-fire%E2%80%99s-new-b... Also, Amazon has most of its customers banking information already.
        opendais 12y ago
        Credit card != Banking Information. And if they pushed an update to change this [even accidentally], how would you know?
        yazaddaruvala 12y ago
        Thats silly. How would you know if any browser pushed an update [even accidentally], with this side effect?
        opendais 12y ago
        1) Access a page you control to check. 2) Silk is the only one I know of that a mere coding error could cause this. It isn't like Chrome and Firefox have a fleet of machines and code designed to act as an always-on proxy.
      - baddox 12y ago
        > How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? Not many, but more than would understand or care about the "man in the middle attack browser" argument.
- jonknee 12y ago
  You can certainly side load applications so Firefox is not a problem and if you know what you're doing Chrome isn't either. Definitely less than ideal though.
  - JohnTHaller 12y ago
    You can, but you have to enable side-loading (most people who buy this phone won't even know what that means) and then you need to worry about it getting out of date. That's a big deal for browsers and not having the app store automatically update you (as it will on Android) to the latest version is a big security risk.
peterwwillis 12y ago
Different markets. The Moto G (and Moto E, cheaper at $130) have much lower specs, and there are phones that have the same specs as a Moto G or Moto E for half the price (like the AT&T Radiant) because they don't carry the "Moto" brand.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  Radiant doesn't have the 'same' specs as the G. Radiant: 480 x 800 G: 720 x 1280 Radiant has a much smaller battery. G has quad core, radiant has dual. G has 8gb of storage. Radiant has 2 available to user. Moto G comes in an LTE flavor for $30 more, no option with Radiant. Radiant is also forever stuck on 4.1 while the G continues to get updates and will probably get some for some time.
  - peterwwillis 12y ago
    I was comparing the E to the Radiant, not the G. Moto E: Dual-core 1.2 GHz, 4.3 inches, 540x960, Internal 4GB, 1GB RAM, MicroSD, 5MP Camera, 854x480 Video, HSDPA, Li-Ion 1980 mAh, Android 4.4 Price: $130 @ Amazon ZTE Radiant: Dual-core 1.4 GHz, 4.0 inches, 480x800, Internal 2GB, 1GB RAM, MicroSD, 5MP Camera, 1280x720 Video, HSDPA, Li-Ion 1735 mAh, Android 4.1 Price: $75 @ Amazon The Moto E and the ZTE Radiant do not have identical specs. But the Radiant is half the cost at almost the same specs. It's clearly a better value. If you can't stand not having the latest Android you can install many custom ROMs, or just wait a year or two for another dirt-cheap phone with a newer version and buy that.

JohnTHaller 12y ago

I don't think it is. Except for people who buy on-contract and don't know better about the pricing and features compared to other phones. Heck, you're even stuck with Amazon's Silk browser... there's no Firefox or Chrome in the Amazon App Store... so most users can forget about syncing this with anything.

opendais 12y ago
Aka the MitM browser. http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fires-silk-browser-sounds-privacy-alarm-bells/ http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fir...
- jonknee 12y ago
  Or you can uncheck the "Accelerate page loading" checkbox.
  - opendais 12y ago
    How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? I can tell you from experience 0 of the ones I've encountered outside the IT/Startup space were aware of that is what it does.
    - kevincrane 12y ago
      > How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? Probably around the same number who care that their traffic is going through Amazon first.
      - opendais 12y ago
        I bet if you went and talked to people if they were comfortable with all of their online banking being routed through Amazon...I suspect most would say No. Just a guess. If you put it in terms they understand, they care.
        gohrt 12y ago
        Amazon says HTTPS is not intercepted https://www.eff.org/2011/october/amazon-fire%E2%80%99s-new-browser-puts-spotlight-privacy-trade-offs https://www.eff.org/2011/october/amazon-fire%E2%80%99s-new-b... Also, Amazon has most of its customers banking information already.
        opendais 12y ago
        Credit card != Banking Information. And if they pushed an update to change this [even accidentally], how would you know?
        yazaddaruvala 12y ago
        Thats silly. How would you know if any browser pushed an update [even accidentally], with this side effect?
        opendais 12y ago
        1) Access a page you control to check. 2) Silk is the only one I know of that a mere coding error could cause this. It isn't like Chrome and Firefox have a fleet of machines and code designed to act as an always-on proxy.
    - baddox 12y ago
      > How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand? Not many, but more than would understand or care about the "man in the middle attack browser" argument.
jonknee 12y ago
You can certainly side load applications so Firefox is not a problem and if you know what you're doing Chrome isn't either. Definitely less than ideal though.
- JohnTHaller 12y ago
  You can, but you have to enable side-loading (most people who buy this phone won't even know what that means) and then you need to worry about it getting out of date. That's a big deal for browsers and not having the app store automatically update you (as it will on Android) to the latest version is a big security risk.

peterwwillis 12y ago

Different markets. The Moto G (and Moto E, cheaper at $130) have much lower specs, and there are phones that have the same specs as a Moto G or Moto E for half the price (like the AT&T Radiant) because they don't carry the "Moto" brand.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago
Radiant doesn't have the 'same' specs as the G. Radiant: 480 x 800 G: 720 x 1280 Radiant has a much smaller battery. G has quad core, radiant has dual. G has 8gb of storage. Radiant has 2 available to user. Moto G comes in an LTE flavor for $30 more, no option with Radiant. Radiant is also forever stuck on 4.1 while the G continues to get updates and will probably get some for some time.
- peterwwillis 12y ago
  I was comparing the E to the Radiant, not the G. Moto E: Dual-core 1.2 GHz, 4.3 inches, 540x960, Internal 4GB, 1GB RAM, MicroSD, 5MP Camera, 854x480 Video, HSDPA, Li-Ion 1980 mAh, Android 4.4 Price: $130 @ Amazon ZTE Radiant: Dual-core 1.4 GHz, 4.0 inches, 480x800, Internal 2GB, 1GB RAM, MicroSD, 5MP Camera, 1280x720 Video, HSDPA, Li-Ion 1735 mAh, Android 4.1 Price: $75 @ Amazon The Moto E and the ZTE Radiant do not have identical specs. But the Radiant is half the cost at almost the same specs. It's clearly a better value. If you can't stand not having the latest Android you can install many custom ROMs, or just wait a year or two for another dirt-cheap phone with a newer version and buy that.